Reflection & Rededication
2022 is in the books and it was truly an inflection point for Project:Camp. After several years refining our camp model and building our community organizing program, we saw the fully realized potential of the organization play out in responses that spanned the United States, from the Pacific Northwest, to the Florida Gulf, to the mesas of New Mexico.
Our work providing trauma-informed spaces for kids to be kids during emergencies couldn’t come at a more critical time.
The specter of climate change has swiftly become a reality, and the frequency and severity of natural disasters are already increasing dramatically as a result. Wildfires in the Western U.S. have raged out of control amidst a historic drought not seen since the 16th century; hurricanes have ravaged the gulf coast, causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damages; and flooding, tornadoes, and ice storms have laid bare the fragility of communities ill-prepared to deal with the uptick in extreme weather.
While emergency management professionals and first responders do a remarkable job providing shelter, clearing roads, feeding evacuees and making sure other basic needs are met, the disaster response ecosystem was not designed with children and families in mind. Parents are too often left without any recourse when schools and childcare networks shut down in the face of disasters. Kids are expected to process these traumatic situations on their own with little to no help.
If there’s a silver lining to the devastation that has come out of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that we as a society are starting to realize just how much school and childcare are critical components of our communities. We know that when schools and childcare networks are disrupted that there are serious knock-on effects: the economy suffers; mental health deteriorates; the very fabric of society begins to fray around the edges.
That’s why we at Project:Camp believe every child and family impacted by a disaster deserves to be supported. We believe it is imperative to step up to ensure the emotional wellbeing and mental health of our most vulnerable population.
If you like to see more of how we made this vision a reality in 2022, you can check out our Annual Report here.
As we look forward to 2023, we hope you’ll see all the ways we’re working to make this vision a reality. We feel the weight of the challenge in front of us as we begin a new year, but we also feel a renewed sense of hope and resolve.
With gratitude,
Mikey
BUlletin Board:
We were lucky enough to join our friends over at Joffe Emergency Services on a webinar last month, where we spoke to an audience of educators about the need to ensure children and families are taken care of during emergencies. The conversation was wonderful and led us to collaborate on a blog post about preparedness for Joffe’s website, which you can find here. Give it a read and let us know what you think!
We are not the erudite social media users, but the American Camp Association asked us to head over to TikTok for their #RapidCampfireQuestions series. Head on over to the ACA’s channel to see our Executive Director Mikey Latner talk about his favorite memories from camp and discuss how it impacted his life!
We’re also excited to announce that two of our leaders were accepted into the Annenberg Foundation’s Alchemy Fundamentals program! Mikey and our Board Chair Lorraine Schneider will begin the six-session program in March. The course is intended to help executive directors and board chairs work in tandem and covers topics that include board governance and development, fundraising, financial sustainability, implicit bias, and storytelling.
