In the heart of Homestead, a stunning Italianate Renaissance church, St. Mary Magdalene, gets new life and purpose. The Dragon’s Den has transformed a decaying, historic building into a vibrant community center that fosters team-building, experiential learning, and self-development.
…promote the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and cultural development of all children and youth with different backgrounds and abilities.Beauty has an intrinsic value essential to human development. The unique philosophy of the Dragon’s Den is that children will thrive and develop as integrated human beings and community members if they experience beauty as an ordinary part of life.
The integration of aesthetic appreciation with physical, emotional, and social development activities becomes part of the child’s identity and imagination. As David McCullough in “Brave Companions” notes, “If character is destiny, so too, is terrain.
The Dragon’s Den offers, in a stunning historical building, a transformative experience through an indoor challenge course (complete with a high and low ropes course, zip line, and climbing wall), team building activities, and other after-school enrichment programs.
We believe that through creative repurposing, beautiful historical buildings can not only be saved from degradation and abandonment but can also become safe havens for children in need.
Dragon’s Den believes in the Challenge by Choice approach. Participants navigate the challenge course at their own pace, deciding the level of challenge they want to conquer.
Challenge by Choice is incorporated in all of our programs off the course as well. We recognize that there is more than one way to achieve a goal, and we encourage this kind of critical thinking in all endeavors.
This is an important step in discovering limitations, untapping problem-solving potential, and pushing boundaries further than one might have thought possible.
“In 1971, Project Adventure began to integrate the challenge course into public school physical education classes. This movement was the beginning of a trend that has led to the current practice of using the challenge course as an educational, developmental, and therapeutic medium to enhance both personal and professional growth.
“During the 1980s, researchers in the field of therapeutic recreation began to report the individual benefits one could derive from participation in challenge course experiences. Research focused on identifying or demonstrating the benefits of participating in challenge courses primarily by psychiatric patients and at risk, adjudicated, and emotionally disturbed youth. The research and literature during the 1990s became more diverse, with efforts directed towards team building and group development, the physiological responses to participation in high ropes courses activities, accessibility, risk management, and a variety of professional topics important to challenge course providers.”
Source: “The Research and Literature on Challenge Courses: An Annotated Bibliography 2nd Edition. Compiled by Aram Attarian, Ph.D. North Carolina State University Department of Parks Recreation & Tourism Management, February 2005, page. 4