The children in Voyages were some of the "worst" at Harrison Elementary, a South Bend inner-city school. They were twenty African American boys between 9 and 13, and with few exceptions all had a history of behavioral and academic difficulties. Several had had multiple disciplinary actions against them in the prior year. Several were receiving special education services, as children with learning disabilities or emotional handicaps. Many lived with their grandmothers, as circumstances made their parents unable to care for them. One was being raised by his great-grandmother, as both mother and grandmother were drug involved and incarcerated, or soon to be. The mother of another had been murdered. Most were known by the school social workers and counselors as extremely "high risk." Many of their teachers preferred to have them out of the classroom rather than have to manage their disruptive influence. In short, these were the students that nobody knew what to do with.

There was a lot of ground to cover in the short time the program ran, half-days for a full month. The first curricular component underscored exposure to African-American history, from pre-colonial Africa to present day. Participants were engaged in activities that allowed them to see the many contributions, sacrifices and accomplishments made by people who looked like themselves. The underlying goal was to enlarge the boys’ extended self-concept to include images that inculcate pride and positive identification. Similar to this goal was direct exposure to African culture, another program component. Discussion of traditional values, relationships and customs allowed participants to view their cultural origins in a more positive light, and went a long way toward dispelling the misconception that Africans are a race of savages. Several field trips put concrete examples to these ideas through museum exhibits at The African American History Museum in Detroit, The DuSable Museum in Chicago, and local sites as well.

Ray credits his favorite part of the program to the "discovery learning" he can see taking a place in a child during this part of the program. "Seeing the knowledge, seeing kids realize for the first time themselves what the history has been in this country, what positive contributions they’ve made...When a child realizes something for the first time and they get it"...this is when learning comes truly and easily. "Once it’s internalized," Ray said, "you don’t have to worry about beating it in."

Clinical intervention was also a focus as the program progressed. Issues of anger management and social skills were addressed in group settings as well as informal individual discussions. Many of the participants live in home and community systems which encourage negative social behavior. The goal of this aspect, then, was to teach effective and appropriate coping strategies, hopefully redirecting troublesome behavior patterns into more productive channels.

The last major component of the program was the encouragement of self-awareness. Participants spent time every day writing their thoughts, impressions and feelings in journals. They were also encouraged to share these reflections with the group, with mutual respect being modeled and affirmed.

The Voyages 1998 staff was Ray Turner, Program Coordinator, who, besides developing the program, continued to implement it by arranging the collaborative financing, developing the budget, selecting participants and performing the daily administrative functions of the program, in addition to leading clinical groups and providing individual assistance. A clinical social worker had direct contact with the participants throughout all their program routine, facilitating all activities, co-leading clinical groups, and providing interventions as needed. A clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist both provided consultation as needed and other assistance. Two high school mentors kept the group organized into cadres for the purpose of record-keeping and other activities, and an instructor in African culture, a doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame from West Africa contributed to teaching program components.