Here at Grow Camp our summer camp programs’ staff passionately work to create a brave space and stretch zone where children ages 5 through 12 are safe to learn, explore, and grow. Our unique camper to staff ratio is designed to support and nurture the unique needs of campers from specific challenged local communities that include the local Deaf and hard of hearing community, Latinx (gender neutral version of Latino) community, Title I school students, rural-based youth, and refugee children.

Grow Camp is a Red Ridge, NC (RRNC) program located on their campus in Saxapahaw, in central North Carolina. RRNC’s 35 acres are heavily wooded, consisting primarily of mature forest typical of the Piedmont region – the perfect setting for campers to experience nature-based mentoring and develop a high comfort level with forest exploration and discovery. 

Grow Camp works to bridge both the “nature gap” and “creativity gap” by structuring camper’s daily activities around the camp’s six Core Learnings including (1) nature play & outdoor games, (2) music & movement, (3) imagination, (4) creative arts, (5) self-exploration, and (6) experiential skill-building. The majority of these activities take place on the RRNC campus, utilizing their pottery studio, fiber arts house, blacksmithery, makerspace, bike shop, herb house, woodworking shop, glass studio, multimedia art studio, and recording/videography studio. Camp activities are supplemented with visiting guest instructors from RRNC’s local community partners.

RRNC’s mission is, “To engage, educate, and employ, through our programs, microbusinesses, and partnerships, to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.” Grow Camp believes that forging this kind of future starts at a young age, and intentionally implements our Core Goals of community, empowerment, diversity, integrity, and environment, in everything we do. While Grow Camp’s Core Learnings and Core Goals are holistic and interwoven throughout, the underlying current that runs through the entire program is a focus on the creation of environmentally literate citizens with deeply developed environmental identities.

When & Where

Camp sessions are offered June through July on the RRNCCampus, with orientation sessions for campers and parents starting in mid May. The purpose of this introduction to camp is to acclimate campers and their families to the numerous concepts and worldviews integrated in Grow Camp that may not be commonly understood within the demographic target groups and geographic area which the camp is located.

Who

Camp is made up of 3 groups of participants. (1) Campers ages 5 - 12 are placed in groups of 4 campers each of varying ages. Each camper group is assigned one (2) Staff-in-Training (SITer) age 13 - 15 and one (3) Staff Member age 16 and up. This makes the Staff and SITer to camper ratio 2:4. This structure has been developed through two successful small-scale pilot Grow Camp programs carried out over the past few years.

Grow Camp seeks out campers from historically underserved (based on local knowledge) regional communities with which to work, including the Deaf and hard of hearing community, Latinx (the gender neutral term for Lanito) community, BIPOC (Black and Indiginouse people of color) communities, Title I (such as Newlin Elementary) school students, local rural-based youth, and refugee children. Each camp session will serve all communities mentioned above together as a holistic whole while simultaneously working to apply the mindset of cultural intelligence to address the cultural backgrounds and needs of each communities youth. Individuals from these communities are also reflected in the camp’s SITers and staff, offering campers the opportunity to participate in a program with older members of their community to act as role models and mentors.

What

The daily activities of the camp are structured around our Core Learnings: Nature Play & Outdoor Games, Music & Movement, Imagination, Creative Art, Self Exploration, and Experiential Skillbuilding.

The majority of these activities take place on campus, utilizing the RRNC workshops, including the pottery studio, fiber arts studio, blacksmithery, makerspace, bike shop, herb house, woodwork shop, glass studio, multimedia art studio, and recording/videography studio. These activities are supplemented with visits from and field trips to RRNC’s local community partners.

Why

Summer camps in the United States were originally designed as a result of various ‘back-nature movements’ due to the expansion of urbanization. (Summer Camp, 2020) According to Britannica Academic a summer camp is, “Any combined recreational and educational facility designed to acquaint ... children with outdoor life.” (Summer Camp, 2020) Even today in a rural setting like Alamance County and the surrounding area, this need still holds true. Grow Camp works to bridge this gap by intentionally implementing our core goals - Community, Empowerment, Diversity, Integrity, and Environment - in everything we do with our campers, as well as with their families.

While Grow Camp’s core learnings, rules, and values are holistic and interwoven, the underlying current running through the entire program is a focus on the creation of Environmentally Literate Citizens with deeply developed Environmental Identities. This focus is shown through the attention the program pays to nature-deficit disorder, overcoming ‘green blindness’, ‘Vitamin N’, and ‘green-time’. Drawing on the work of E. O. Wilson, Grow Camp aims to do this by sharing the understanding that children, as Louise Chawla said;

[Draw] on social learning and cultural messages about appropriate roles and behaviors, children interpret experiences, build patterns of emotional reactions and memories, begin to develop a sense of identity, and set goals. As they take action to achieve goals, they develop a sense of self-efficacy, or confidence that they can do what is necessary to achieve the goals that they value. (Chawla, 2009)

And according to an article published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology (Snyder, Hoza, & Pelha, et al., 1997), this mindset is called hope for the future.

Sources

Community 

By the end of the program, campers will be able to:

1. Recognize the importance of forming a holistic community mindset by developing a “whole” community from historically and culturally separate communities, through working together to create a space where everyone’s voice holds equal value.

2. Identify the differences between conventional living and/or learning and place-based living and/or learning through completing place-based activities and participating in discussions with staff and fellow campers.

3. Infer the importance of accountability and responsibility by either completing assigned tasks that support the camp’s functioning, or dealing with the natural repercussions of not completing the tasks.

4. Practice collaboration in cooperative games and imaginative play, shaped through group consensus.

Empowerment

By the end of the program, campers will be able to:

1. Exhibit a basic mastery of common craftsmanship tools (including, but not limited to, pocket knives, hot glue guns, rope and knots, screwdrivers, and sewing, knitting, and crocheting needles, etc.) by using them in camp activities without being fearful of or negligent with them.

2. Express a growth of perseverance and self-reliance through participation in challenging personal experiences and discovery with fellow campers.

3. Apply tools and techniques to self-regulate themselves.

4. Explain how their knowledge of the core skills of bushcraft (water, shelter, food, fire, direction) will make them safe in any natural environment, during activities and discussions with fellow campers and staff.

Diversity 

By the end of the program, campers will be able to:

1. Express why true diversity should never be just for show and that actively incorporating, representing, and bringing together people not only from diverse cultural backgrounds, but also with a diversity of experiences and skill sets, languages, educational pedagogies, midsets, and racial and ethnic backgrounds, is imperative for building holistic communities.

2. Actively integrate, not only with their peer age group, but also with younger and older campers, through direct interaction and engagement in activities.

3. Exhibit their growth of cultural intelligence by sharing with staff at least one thing they didn’t know or understand about the culture or community of their fellow campers before camp started.

Integrity

By the end of the program, campers will be able to:

1. Express kindness and respect by exhibiting focused listening, open-mindedness, empathy, and patience when engaging with fellow campers, staff, family, and themselves.

2. Convey a strong sense of fairness built through collaborative play, cooperative games, and imaginative play, shaped through group consensus.

3. Apply the tools and techniques of self-reflection in group and individual self-exploration activities.

Environment

By the end of the program, campers will be able to:

1. Illustrate their awareness that nature, animals, and insects aren’t something to fear through showing compassion towards and knowledge of them during interactions with natural spaces, animals, and insects, and conversations with fellow campers, staff, and family members.

2. Apply a basic grasp of the terminology and knowledge that supports being Environmentally Literate Citizens with deeply developed Environmental Identities while solving challenge activities based around real community needs.

3. Express the critical importance of supporting stewardship of the earth through a love and understanding of its complex webs of life in active discussion and casual conversation with fellow campers, staff, and family.

4. Identify 3 edible and 3 herbal wildcraft plants by collecting 1 one each plant on their own/with support with their fellow campers.

5. Apply the 5 main skills of bushcraft (water, shelter, food, fire, and direction) by finding a source, collecting and cleansing water, making a shelter, finding a food source, and building a fire on their own and/or with the support of their fellow campers.

The mission of Red Ridge, NC is, “To engage, educate, and employ, through our programs, microbusinesses, and partnerships, to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.” Forging this kind of future starts at a young age. At Grow Camp, we passionately work to create a brave space and stretch zone where children ages 5 - 12 are safe to learn, explore, and grow. We do this by implementing our five core values:

Community

Due to technology, communities now exist that span the planet, and place-based living and learning has often fallen by the wayside. We have a strong focus on creating a community built around balancing out this phenomenon. This community mindset also actively incorporates accountability, responsibility, healing, collaboration, and a clear sense of support and safety.

Empowerment

While self-empowerment is not always something that can be taught, there are a number of important factors that come into play when creating a space that facilitates empowerment. These include, but are certainly not limited to, independence and self-reliance, courage, perseverance, leadership, literacy, craftsmanship, challenging personal experiences, and discovery.

Diversity 

We work to build true diversity across the board, and never just for show. This includes actively incorporating, representing, and bringing together people not only from diverse cultural backgrounds, but also with a diversity of experiences and skill sets, languages, educational pedagogies, mindsets, and racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Integrity

There are specific factors that we feel combine in a person's life to build integrity within them, and we work to bring those factors into play in our program. These include, but are certainly not limited to, empathy, reflection, open-mindedness, kindness, focused listening, respect, and a strong sense of fairness. All of these factors are built upon one key piece of the puzzle, which is patience. We feel that without patience, none of us can learn and grow into integrity.

Environment

Our last core value is perhaps the most pivotal, because without it life as we know it would not exist. We believe it is critical to support stewardship of the earth through a love and understanding of its complex webs of life. This includes moving and growing with the yearly cycle of the seasons, grasping the basics of wildcraft and bushcraft, and developing an understanding of our food systems, all the way from farm to fork - ultimately forming valuable Eco Citizens with strong Environmental Identities.