Since its founding in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America has offered its members an outdoor program stressing personal fitness. COPE is an acronym for Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience. It comprises a series of outdoor challenges, beginning with basic group initiative games and progressing to more complicated low-course and high-course activities. Some of these events involve a group effort, whereas others test individual skills and agility. Participants climb, swing, balance, jump, and rappel as well as think through solutions to a variety of challenges. Most participants find that they can do much more than they initially thought that they could.

Project COPE is an exciting outdoor activity that can attract and keep older youth in Scouting. It is designed to meet the needs of today's youth who are seeking greater physical and mental challenges. The underlying goals of a Project COPE course are consistent with the methods of Scouting. Group activities are ideal for emphasizing the patrol method and developing leadership. Individual activities help promote personal growth. Participation is entirely voluntary.

A Project COPE course provides an opportunity for each participant to achieve success as an individual and as a member of a patrol or team. The activities are not designed to be competitive or to be races against time. The objectives include building teams, solving problems, making decisions, and developing trust, communication, leadership, planning, and self-esteem, as team members cooperate to achieve goals upon which they have agreed. The course is designed to foster personal growth among both youth and adult groups.

All COPE activities require a currently certified COPE director and currently certified COPE facilitators.

Project COPE Information Sheet                 COPE Activity/Goal Assessment Chart

The Project COPE manual (34371) describes facilities and equipment for low- and high-course activities that help develop communication, planning, teamwork, trust, leadership, decision making, problem-solving, and self-esteem in the participants.

COPE Facilitator Training

COPE (Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience) is an exciting program that teaches important lessons, but the classroom is like no other. COPE uses mental and physical challenges, low and high above ground to teach confidence, self-esteem, trust, leadership, team building and problem-solving. As a COPE facilitator, you'll help participants climb, swing, balance, jump, and think of solutions to a variety of activities.

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