The following is a featured story in our 2023 Community Impact Report.
VOA Alaska brought adventure, joy, and social-emotional learning into the lives of children during the summer with two camps—one for rising sixth graders at Begich Middle School and another for youth in Kinship Care.
Begich was chosen for the three-week camp to help strengthen and support that school’s community after experiencing a series of significant challenges among its families.
VOA’s School-Based Services team of mental health clinicians collaborated on designing engaging activities to help students improve their interpersonal skills and grow self-awareness. These included playing with Oobleck to learn about bouncing back from stressful situations and rock climbing to learn healthy methods for navigating challenges.
For clinician Rachael Eliason, teaching these social-emotional lessons and helping the kids build coping skills was the highlight of the camp.
“The best part is watching resilient students in action,” she said. “Using these tools to support themselves and others. Skills such as open communication, positive self-talk, conflict resolution, and healthy coping strategies were all taught while having a total blast.”
Like any summer camp, the best part for kids was the friendships they made. However, what’s special about the Begich Camp is that those friendships continue into the school year!
“Coming to middle school in Anchorage requires meeting new people from different elementary schools throughout the community,” Rachael explains. “Many students came to camp fearful of not having friends going to school. It was amazing to see the strong connections they made.”
Over in VOA’s Family Services program, another camp instilled hope and built resiliency in younger kids. After a long hiatus due to the pandemic, Camp Hope returned to engage and connect 7–11-year-olds affected by substance use or behavioral health challenges.
Many of the kids were part of VOA’s Kinship Care program, which supports caregivers of relative children.
Like the camp at Begich, Camp Hope emphasized social-emotional learning. Campers practiced identifying emotions, built self-confidence, and learned how to work as a team to achieve a shared goal.
Activities were structured around a daily routine, with morning and afternoon check-ins to see how well the kids were learning and applying their new skills, while time dedicated to journaling helped them reflect on their personal growth.
The campers also went on field trips and tried new foods and activities. For Felicia Nichols, Family Care Coordinator, those were her favorite moments, when “a child experienced a first with us and shared their reactions.”
Campers visited the Botanical Gardens on one of their many field trips, where they picked herbs and made salad dressing in cooking class. Felicia says one camper “could not wait to make the recipe at home with their family!”
Younger siblings would learn about all the fun things and tell our staff they couldn’t wait until they were old enough to attend camp. Kinship caregivers even joined in on some of the activities. One caregiver expressed how grateful she was that her kid was able to build more positive adult relationships.
Back at Begich, the families also expressed their gratitude. One shared that her “grandson was very reluctant, but after two days, he could not wait to get there in time!”
Through all the fun enjoyed by kids and adults alike, over 50 young Alaskans have gained valuable life skills to help them navigate the challenges of growing up.
Both camps were made possible through funding from the Municipality of Anchorage Alcohol Tax Grant.
