Camper Care: A Year Later
Last year, we felt it was about time to let you all in on a little secret. We shared with you how we create the Camp Chi Magic by focusing on and continually improving camper care. If you are new to our family or just need a refresher, you can find last year’s blog here.
At Camp Chi, we are committed to celebrating successes, providing safe spaces for campers to grow and challenge themselves. We provide amazing experiences for our campers by focusing on all moments and details, no matter how big or small. That is the basic formula of Camper Care and it’s at the core of everything we do. Each year we spend time in the off-season thinking, researching and developing, and training in systems, procedures and curriculum to help make us better at what we do.
As a way to elevate the level of care we are able to provide, the full-time team completed several training courses. The first was in mental health first aid, which taught us risk factors, how to recognize warning signs, and ways to intervene and support someone going through a mental health crisis. The second was the “Shmira” training, led in conjunction with the Foundation for Jewish Camp and Moving Traditions. This course provided us programmatic and policy development resources around addressing gender, sex and power in a camp setting. The third course was a behavioral training that showed us how to work with campers who are exhibiting challenging or dangerous behaviors in a way that was safe and supportive.
In addition to all of the work put in during the off-season, this summer we will build upon the foundation we laid last summer by bringing back the complete camper care team which includes our Camper Care Coordinator, social workers, Inclusion Director, Keshet Site Director, and our full-time staff. Joining the team this year is Tal Oxenberg, a new face to the social work team. Tal is a Jewish camp alumni and currently serves as a school social worker in Philadelphia. We are excited to have him with us!
Before everyone arrives, we will be going through camp and making sure common areas and procedures are easily accessible to everyone and their learning styles through universal design. This year we are committing to not only teaching our staff how to provide the best care but also giving them easy tricks and tips (and checklists) to make sure every camper is healthy and safe. Our goal is to give every staff member the tools they need to provide the best care for campers and teach them when it is time to step back and ask for help, whether that is from the health center, village leader, or a member of the camper care team. That way we know each camper is safe and setup for success.
We are looking forward and are excited to see how all our efforts come together this summer!