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by Randall Grayson, Ph.D.
Camps are taking up the challenge from America’s Promise,
the American Camping Association, and society itself to serve more at-risk
children through a camp experience. Whether you already serve at-risk
youth, in part or total, or are thinking about including these children,
this article will provide some necessary background information as well
as specifics about how camps can serve this population.
Defining At-Risk Youth?
The term "at-risk youth" has taken on broad
connotations and must be specifically defined to be useful. In the current
context, at-risk youth are those who have some of the following characteristics:
- live in chronic poverty
- go to a poor school
- have poor school performance
- are in a negative peer group
- have poor social skills
- use drugs themselves or are with a caregiver who does
- are a minority
- have a family situation characterized by stress, excessive work
load and hours, depressed caregiver, lack of structure and rules,
poor parenting skills, or negative role models
- live in a bad neighborhood (drugs, violence, lack of things to do,
low community support)
Risk falls along a continuum. A child with one or two
risk factors would likely fall in the minimal- or remote-risk category.
A high-risk child, for example, might be one who goes to a poor school,
hangs out with a bad crowd, is aggressive, and does gateway drugs such
as smoking or alcohol. A child at imminent risk might be one who engages
in early sexual behavior, has been in legal trouble, has dropped out of
school, and does hard drugs.
Possible negative life outcomes for at-risk youth vary
depending on the complex factors at work in the individual’s life, but
they might include teenage pregnancy, drug use, criminal or antisocial
behavior (violence, theft, etc.), high school education or lower, marriage
that ends in divorce or is unhealthy, low socioeconomic status, shorter
life span, mental health problems, or lower I.Q. For the latter, it is
interesting to note that children with only one or two risk factors have
an average I.Q. However, as the number of risk factors goes up, children’s
I.Q. scores go down. For example, children with four risk factors have,
on average, an I.Q. of 90, while children with six risk factors have an
I.Q. of about 80.
Although the type of at-risk child served determines
the kind of camp programming that would be successful, children who rise
above their circumstances have many characteristics in common that comprehensive
camps can either increase or help compensate for.
Beating the Odds
About two-thirds of high-risk children will experience
one or more negative life outcome. Looking at the glass half full, that
also means that one-third will beat the odds and lead healthy, productive
lives. How do we know this? Over one million children have been closely
studied, often for several years, to discern this fact.
As an illustration, one famous landmark study followed
all the children born in one year on the island of Kauai in Hawaii for
thirty-two years. The family, child, community, and schools were all carefully
measured, and medical records were thoroughly examined. The result of
this massive analysis (as well as others) shows that resilient children,
the one-third who beat the odds, have several things in common.
What Makes Children Resilient?
Resilient children possess several common characteristics.
Readers will likely note a common-sense feel to the list; however, the
following characteristics were culled from a much larger list of factors
that seem equally likely to make a difference. Understand that children
don’t need all of these traits, but the more they have the better. Camps
have many opportunities to make an impact, particularly in the personal
characteristics resiliency domain.
Family
A warm, cohesive, family environment that has an absence of stress and
conflict supports children. At least one caregiver should have good parenting
skills and show a genuine love for the child. By default, single parent
status is not a risk factor, but it is often correlated to a non-supportive
environment.
Personal
The personal characteristics that seem to benefit children most are hope,
self-confidence, independence, social skills (responsibility, empathy,
cooperation, assertiveness, and interpersonal skill), delay gratification/impulse
control/
restraint, stress tolerance, problem-solving, and self-esteem.
Friends and mentors
Having a good, constant friend is important, and being in a prosocial
peer group where one is accepted is even better. As folk wisdom and mother
always said, who children hang out with makes a very big difference in
the choices they make and how they mature into adults. It’s also the case
that social skills play a big part in who a child’s friends are; children
with high social skills are often part of more positive peer groups. This
also points out the interdependent nature of many of these assets, since
social skills is a personal quality and parents have a lot to do with
their children’s degree of social skills.
School
Many of the qualities that make a good school also make a good camp. These
qualities include: high expectations of student achievement, an orderly
climate, regular evaluations of students’ progress with clear feedback,
social support (counselors, homeroom teachers, etc.), ample use of praise
of good performance, firm but not severe discipline, widespread opportunities
for children to take responsibility, higher proportion of teacher time
interacting with class as a whole, and active involvement in the learning
process.
Community
Having a sense of community — neighborhoods and neighbors — is protective
as there tend to be more caring people and less chance to get into trouble.
Opportunities for positive activity (religious community, after-school
programs, and fun activities) help as well.
Fostering Resiliency at Camp
Following are some best practices that have been scientifically
proven to make a difference in at-risk children’s lives. Again, like the
characteristics of resiliency themselves, the more elements a camp program
has in place, the better the odds are that children will truly be benefited.
Focus on youth development
Instead of just treating teenage pregnancy, drug use, or school problems
in silo efforts, successful programs try to build individual strengths.
In social work, this is called strength-based practice. Camps often do
a good job of this as they specialize in building people up in a holistic
way. However, if children present such serious problems as in these examples,
camps should partner with other agencies that have programs to address
their unique issues.
Target the personal domain
Building the personal characteristics of resiliency is a very powerful
approach as children will carry those strengths with them to school, at
home, with their peers, and in the community. Camps have the greatest
degree of influence on the personal level. For example, camps often already
have programs and structures in place to improve self-confidence, self-esteem,
and social skills.
Solid processes in place
Programs that serve at-risk youth claim to improve many personal, academic,
or family issues; however, only programs that have solid processes that
are in line with best practices and theory actually make a difference.
While a study shows that the average camp makes virtually no impact, camps
with solid processes do have the potential to make a difference. Successful
programs understand exactly what their outcomes are and precisely what
elements needs to be in place to achieve them.
Borrowing organizational elements
from school
As noted in the school domain, the organizational elements that make a
successful school would also make a great camp. Some camps target the
school domain further by providing academic components to their program,
while still being true to the camp modality.
Highly trained staff
Programs that can point to research-proven outcomes for their participants
generally have highly trained staff. Programs that utilize staff with
good intentions and good hearts, but without the hard and soft skills
necessary to impact children’s lives, are rarely successful in the long
term. In one case, even a two-week precamp training was insufficient.
Individualized approach
Successful programs focus on the individual child. Each child has a unique
situation and individual strengths and weaknesses. Understanding those
and developing an individual treatment plan is often necessary. Camps
should gather specific information about each child and use that in meetings
with counselors and supervisors. Throughout the session, follow-up meetings,
perhaps even involving the child, are very helpful.
Similarly, camps should be careful to match the child
entering their doors with their program and staff. Carefully assess what
level of at-risk children your camp can successful handle and help, which
are not necessarily the same thing!
Year-round programming
At-risk children are best served by programs that go beyond a summer session.
This offers both continuity and an opportunity to more directly influence
domains beyond the personal level. Providing children with mentors is
extremely beneficial. Having after-school programs gives children something
constructive to do, keeps them in touch with positive role models, and
often targets academic skills. To address the family domain, parent effectiveness
training is sometimes utilized. These are often outside the scope of what
most camps can handle, but they might be able to partner with other social
service agencies to provide such services for the children they serve.
Long-term focus
The best practice is to work with at-risk children for several years,
as short and one-shot programs are rarely successful in the long term.
Camps could make a commitment to the at-risk children they serve for three
to four years/summers, which would greatly increase the likelihood that
the children’s lives would truly be changed.
"Alternative" Outcomes
The focus here has been on influencing the characteristics of resiliency,
because those are the elements that have been proven to place children
squarely in the one-third that make it in life. Beyond that framework,
camps have the opportunity to make a difference in these children’s lives
in other ways.
- Children may receive a respite from a negative
environment — family, school, or community. That reprieve alone may
be the best gift a child receives all year. In addition, they likely
received love and healthy attention from positive mentors.
- Children may also see that there is an alternative,
healthy way of existing, which might broaden their horizons or expectations
as to what is good, possible, and desirable.
- For perhaps the first time, children may have
been exposed to what a healthy community is and understand why it
is such an important element and worthy goal.
- Some children might alter what they do in
their free time at home and/or expand what they view as fun if given
the option.
- Camp as prevention — children are not at home
or in risky neighborhoods with little positive to do over the summer.
There are a lot of at-risk children who could benefit
from a camp experience and not enough camp programs that are dedicated
to serving them (in part or total). The information provided in this article
will help well-intentioned programs meet their objectives. While changing
a child’s life is not easy, it is definitely worthwhile.
Originally published in the 2001 January/February
issue of Camping Magazine. |
