Community Care This Summer

Community Care is often one of our biggest focusses at Camp Chi. We have been recognized year after year as a leader in our field for caring for the needs of our campers and staff. We always work to update and adapt with the changing needs of our community, and this year is no exception. In fact, we have significantly ramped up our efforts to care for our community, and we’d like to share some of our updates.

But before we get there, you might be wondering what exactly Community Care is at Camp Chi? We define Community Care as the actions and systems we use to ensure the mental, emotional, social, and health (MESH) needs of our campers and staff are met. After the past year, we understand and expect there to be a variety of needs in our community that may not have existed in past years. Here are some updates on how we are working to meet the needs of our community.

Staff

We have made an active effort to add to our Community Care Staffing. This summer, we have even more staff whose jobs are solely dedicated to our Community Care. We have an incredible team of Social Workers, MESH Staff, and Supervisors this summer who are going to help meet the needs of our community.

Carrie Ross is our Community Care Supervisor this summer. Carrie, a long-time veteran of Camp Chi, will manage and plan for the MESH needs of our community, for both campers and staff. Carrie is a School Social Worker, who has also held many supervisory positions at Camp Chi through the years and will thoughtfully lead our professional Community Care team.

We also have multiple on-site social workers with us at camp this summer. Familiar face Rachel Temkin is back this summer, and Melissa Zabel is returning to Chi after too long away! Rachel Schwartz (Director of Social Services for JCC Chicago) is joining us this summer as well, and we’re happy to welcome her to camp. Our wonderful social workers will help provide coping skills and check-ins for campers needing MESH support.

On the staff-focused side, we have Dave Temkin joining us as our Wellness Director. Dave will be creating trainings, programs, and opportunities for our Staff-Focused Wellness Initiatives. We also have Polly Cheeseman returning to be our Camper Care Manager. Polly will be focusing on the needs of campers within their cabin dynamic, meaning she will provide counselors with strategies to make modifications and accommodations to help all campers be successful within a cabin. We also have AJ Teplinsky joining us as our Manager of Staff Life. In his role, AJ will be running our staff retreat area, ensuring that staff have everything they need on time-off to be reenergized and refocused while on the clock.

Our Community Care team is larger than ever before, and the qualification and dedication of this staff ensures us that the needs of our community will be met with care and professionalism this summer.

Grants

As a continuous leader in our field, Camp Chi has been recognized and awarded with multiple grants to help us continue to focus on our Community Care.

Yedid Nefesh, a grant from the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) and the Marcus Foundation, is a multi-year grant that includes allocations for staffing, counselor training, and program support. With the grant, we have purchased many different anxiety-reducing tools that are accessible all around camp, all day and night long. These include sound machines for sleep, fidget toys, and other tools to help campers be successful. We have also created a new Cabin Time with the help of the grant, where cabins can meet with a social worker as a whole to have an open group conversation. Another use of the grant is our updated Indoor and Outdoor Sensory Rooms, which campers can use for recuperation.

We have also received a grant in the Fund for Innovation and Health (FIH) through the Jewish Federation of Chicago and the Jewish United Fund (JUF). This grant helps us provide support for the social and emotional health and well-being of our Camp Community. In particular, it is allowing us to create community partnerships with organizations such as Jewish Child and Family Services (JCFS) to provide training and support to our seasonal team.

We received another grant through an anonymous donor. This grant helps us provide scholarships for campers that come with additional support, and helps us add additional staffing to our Community Care team. By offsetting costs and giving scholarships, this grant will help ensure the needs of any and all campers are met.

We are proud of the work we have done with our Community Care. We know that we are never finished, and guarantee that we will continue to update to the changing needs of our Camp Community. If you’d like to discuss specific camper needs or want to learn more about how we can support your camper, please feel free to reach out to us!