Twenty-five feet above the ground, 11-year-old Daniel Martinez lost his balance.

Flailing wildly to regain his footing, the boy dangled from two safety ropes with his feet slipping on and off a third rope stretched between two ironwood trees.

Below, coaches and other students yelled encouragement.

"I was shaking but I said to myself 'I'm not going to fall off, I'm going to go all the way,' " Martinez said, when he was successfully back on the ground.

"When I fell off I said to myself 'I can pull myself back up,' " said the Kailua Intermediate School seventh-grader participating in a new summer program for intermediate students.

That was exactly what the professionals who run the human development course hoped Martinez and 39 other students from four schools in the Kailua area would learn about themselves.

A week of intensive interaction, challenges and bonding activities are key ingredients of the Breakthroughs for Youth at Risk program, which is intended to help the students learn about making choices and the stuff they're made of, said director Sharon Lester.

The meat of the course involves encounter groups, large and small guided group discussions, activities such as tai chi, hula and pilates, as well as experiences designed to build resiliency.

"The whole seven days is designed to have them understand themselves and see their weaknesses and strengths and what they can do to build their strengths," said Clinton Terrell, the group's executive director. "This is a rite of passage where children face themselves and learn about themselves and take a quantum leap to the next level of maturity. There are two primary focuses — self-awareness and self-care."

Already the group is seeing improvements in grades and retention of high school students who have gone through the course in past years. "The kids that do our program improve their grades, their attendance, and they graduate or pass to the next grade," Terrell said. "What our program is addressing is kids' need to understand themselves and to understand who other kids are and to work out social relationships. The underpinning is caring about kids and understanding them and that's not being taught to teachers."

The group, whose programs are financed by a $125,000 grant from the State Department of Defense, has run similar programs for high school students over the past three years, but Lester said they needed to intervene with young people even earlier. This is the first year the program has been aimed at intermediate students.

"All kids are vulnerable to some of the things going on in society," Lester said. "And these are the years when they're especially vulnerable, when they decide if they're going to smoke or drink, or do drugs, or when they're going to have sex. ... So if we get them to see the healthy choices they can make, we have a better chance of having some elements not getting into their lives and ruining their lives.

"We hope this helps them make a smooth transition into middle school because for some kids that can be pretty traumatic dealing with the pressures out there."

Students will have an after-school follow-through for an additional 10 months that will emphasize goal setting and overcoming obstacles.

Castle High School teacher Donna Okita, who was volunteering as a coach, said working with the younger students was important.

"Hopefully we can catch them early," she said. "I feel the high school kids are set in their ways."

One of the most riveting parts of the activities was the challenge of the high ropes course at the YMCA's Camp Erdman near Mokule'ia on the North Shore.

With rain squalls blowing in off the ocean making the ropes slick, the teens were faced with a precarious journey up a 30-foot ladder and then along wiggling ropes fastened between half a dozen ironwoods. It's a course used by both public and private schools to bond and strengthen students who are at important stages of transition in life.

"I think all kids are at risk these days," said Josh Heimowitz, Erdman's executive director who sees about 70 schools and groups go through the course, and the leadership training every year. "The ropes course is really a tool to have them work on their self-esteem, their teamwork, their communications skills.

"It's an opportunity for them to experience something physical and the key part is the debriefing that brings up their emotions," he said. "I've had parents call and say 'thank you.' By being out here their kids who hadn't talked much to them in a year came home and let them know what's happening in their lives."

Parent Sharon Kaffaga was impressed by the program and eager for her son to go through it simply to boost his self-confidence.

"I think it builds confidence in themselves," she said. "To know if they focus and have a vision and get up there, they can actually get to the end. My son just needed that reassurance."

The program included about 10 children from military families, and she thought it was a particularly good experience to help counteract what's happening in homes because of the war in Iraq.

"A lot of military kids act up because their dads are deployed," she said. "If they find a friend doing the same thing they follow along."

Her husband, Jeb Kaffaga, in the Third Marines, Headquarters Company at Kane'ohe Marine Corps Base Hawai'i, volunteered as one of the coaches for the week.

He was intent on each of the youngsters as they ascended the ladder and stepped out onto the ropes course, hooked by safety lines, but feeling vulnerable and often fearful of the height.

"Come on, you can do it," he hollered from below, encouraging one after another of the students onto the next more difficult step of the rope course.

"You've got to stay focused buddy. You can do it."

One of the key ingredients of the ropes course is how it teaches trust, Okita said.

"Sometimes you'll have a partner up there and you have to really be able to trust them that they won't let you fall. That's one of the biggest things in a breakthrough, to be able to trust someone," she said.

For Adam Tittle it was a chance to learn to trust himself — and face the fear of heights that so many students shared.

"Stepping across (from one small platform to the next) was the hardest thing," he said. "I think it would be easier (next time.)"

As he reached the ground, Cathy Smith, a counselor at Kailua Intermediate School volunteering with the program, hugged him. "I'm so proud of you," she beamed.

Aaron Bridgett had the same fear, and was proud he made his way across the ropes in the rain.

"You faced your fears, dude," said counselor Willie Thomas, proudly pumping the boy's hand after he slid down the final zip line to the ground.

For eighth-grader Adrien Lima-Peters, the first student to ascend into the trees and push himself out across the ropes, it was especially gratifying as he tamed a wildly wavering rope and actually began to enjoy the experience.

"I used to be afraid of heights," he said, "but this was a thrill of my life."