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by Kevin Gordon
At all levels of camp, people of color are dramatically underrepresented:
in ownership, directorship, staffing, and as campers. This circumstance
is unacceptable, especially because, within a generation, the majority
of the U.S. population will be of color. According to U.S. Census projections, "minorities," now
roughly one-third of the U.S. population, are expected to become the
majority in 2042, with the nation projected to be 54 percent "minority" in
2050. By 2023, minorities will comprise more than half of all children.
The non-Hispanic, single-race white population is projected to comprise
46 percent of the total population in 2050, down from 66 percent in
2008. Meanwhile, the Hispanic population is projected to nearly triple,
from 46.7 million to 132.8 million during the 2008-2050 period. Its
share of the nation's total population is projected to double,
from 15 percent to 30 percent. Thus, nearly one in three U.S. residents
would be Hispanic. The black population is projected to increase from
14 percent of the population in 2008, to 15 percent in 2050. The Asian
population share is expected to rise from 5.1 percent to 9.2 percent.
American Natives are projected to rise from 1.6 to 2 percent of the
total population. The Pacific Islander population is expected to more
than double. The number of people who identify themselves as bi-racial
is projected to more than triple. In 2050, the nation's population
of children is expected to be 62 percent minority, up from 44 percent
today. Thirty-nine percent are projected to be Hispanic (up from 22
percent in 2008), and 38 percent are projected to be single-race, non-Hispanic
white (down from 56 percent in 2008) (2008 U.S. Census Bureau).
Lack
of diversity in camp inhibits the broader camp
field from providing universal access to quality experiences. It also
affects the bottom line; if you're maintaining a business model that
does not respond to the needs of a large client pool, you will soon
be out of business or competing for a shrinking share of a small pie.
As camp professionals, we must articulate the value of camp to a broader
audience, and serve it appropriately — instead of struggling with a twentieth century
problem of serving the same narrow population by doing the same narrow
traditional activities. We can and must properly support diversity.
In organized camping, children should see diverse models in fellow
campers, staff, and ownership. For now, those models are not prevalent.
In the U.S., there seems to be only one Black-owned private residential
camp based upon information from major camp associations.
The overwhelming majority of camp directors and campers is Caucasian.
A 2007 American Camp Association (ACA) nationwide
study reveals that of over 500 respondent accredited
camps, 95 percent of camp directors are Caucasian,
with less than 0.5 percent black, less than 0.5 percent Asian, less
than 1 percent Native American (2007 American Camp Association). A 2003
ACA Camp Industry Survey of Residential Camps, compared with U.S. census
data, shows that White Americans comprise almost 90 percent of residential
campers at independent, for-profit camps (and almost 80 percent overall),
despite being less than 75 percent of the U.S. population (2003 American
Camp Association).
Compared to the general population, and despite the
lifeenhancing benefits that camp offers, children
of color are sadly underrepresented. The ACA Camp Industry Survey when
compared with U.S. census data, also indicated at independent, for-profit
camps, Black Americans are 3.7 percent of the camper population (69
percent below the population share); Hispanics 3.6 percent (75 percent
under); Asian or Pacific Islander 2.2 percent (51 percent under); Bi-racial
or mixed race 1.4 percent (26 percent under); and Native American 0.0
percent (infinitely under).
I first became involved in camp as a tennis
pro at a predominantly Jewish girls summer camp.
It was an excellent experience; I returned there for many summers, having
fallen in love with camp's awesome power to positively influence children.
But as I became more involved in the camp field, I realized that most
camps were homogenous — with
very few intentionally attracting, supporting,
and maintaining a diverse camper base. Reacting to that, after many
years of effort, Camp Kupugani came to fruition. At Kupugani, girls
of different cultures and backgrounds come together for fun and to learn
empowerment and social intelligence skills. We explore inter-cultural
issues, while simultaneously fostering friendship and teamwork. We believe
that living, playing, and working together is the best way to instill
cross-cultural bonds of friendship and trust. Kupugani girls enjoy activities
like rock climbing, river walking, canoeing, playing under waterfalls,
and night hikes under the stars, plus carefully designed group activities
and games so that fun and personal growth coincide.
Black, White, Latinas,
Arab-Americans, Asian-Americans, firstgeneration
immigrants, multiple-generation immigrants, biracial adoptees — girls
from different towns, cities, suburbs, states,
and countries — each
bring unique biases and preconceptions to camp.
Even as we address issues of difference with campers
open to tackling those issues, it can still be difficult to fully understand
one another. Nevertheless, with activities like creating "I
Am From" poetry, where the girls consider things about themselves
with which they most strongly identify — often race or ethnicity,
language, or family — they begin to understand the diversity brought
by each member of the community. Other activities
force us to address, recognize, and let go of stereotypes.
Our Camp Kupugani mission is to expose children
of varied backgrounds and ethnicities to each other
in a residential camp setting. This corresponds with the ACA's
20/20 Vision: we can broaden how camps contribute
to positive child and youth development in an expanding
national and global community. To do so, we must
foster camp environments where campers of color
feel supported at their camp by seeing the following:
other campers of color, strong role models as staff, and themselves
as potential owners and directors.
Any article purporting to offer tools
to increase diversity or representation of people
of color risks making stereotypical assumptions. Let's
first acknowledge that no magic tool works with
everyone, regardless of culture, background, or
ethnicity. There is a rich variety in how people
of any background "define" themselves. Just as all white people aren't
the same — with divergent
backgrounds and mindsets — the same is true for people of other
groups. There may be even more divergence in backgrounds
of people of color, with varied countries of origin,
generational span within their adopted country, religious background,
and the like. That said, this article raises some broad strategies that
may apply to a significant cross-section of folks of color.
Camp families — whether "traditional" (families
with parents who went to camp, or who have friends,
neighbors, or community members who did) or "non-traditional" (families
without significant camp experience) — weigh the prospective costs
and benefits when contemplating sending a child
to camp. All good parents are concerned about their children's
safety. However, traditional camper parents have more direct knowledge
of the advantages of camp, so their cost-benefit analysis tilts relatively
easily towards camp attendance. For nontraditional
parents, going to camp has not been part of their community culture.
Camps must more intentionally communicate to these parents the significant
benefits of the camp experience and allay concerns about safety.
Defining
Safety
In defining safety when talking to nontraditional
camp parents, tangibly define it. Safety is both
physical and emotional; both factors need to be addressed to the prospective
parent. Regarding physical safety, emphasize your camp's
safeguards regarding hiring — i.e., background and reference checks,
and in-person interviews of new employees — and against physical
intrusion by strangers. Also emphasize your systemic
protections against camper-camper problems. Regarding
emotional safety, highlight how your camp minimizes homesickness and
the potential of bullying, while facilitating your campers' emotional
development.
Explaining the ACA-accreditation process can further effectively
address safety concerns. Share how accreditation
evinces your camp's commitment to a safe and nurturing environment and
assures that camp practices have been measured against national standards — and
how ACA standards are those of the camp industry. These all can persuasively
demonstrate your commitment to safety and show that your camp can be
trusted to care for parents' most precious
assets.
Cultural Relevancy
Demonstrate that your
camp is culturally relevant. Show that you understand
the values, lifestyles, and behaviors that parents
are trying to promote. Confirm that you can provide
campers with a culturally appropriate sense of comfort.
Cultural relevancy
is a difficult challenge, as it requires an individuated
approach. For each prospective family, we try to assess the driving
motivator to go to camp. For some, we stress how character building
enhances future success; for others, we emphasize social development;
for yet others, it's accentuating assimilation into broader American
culture; and for others, the opposite — helping them safely celebrate
and assert individuality. For some, it might be
brainstorming how the family will cope with the temporary loss of the
camper, who may well be the family's main translator or assistant
caregiver. Again, there's
no magic answer; it takes time, thought, and effort
to learn what individual families think is best
and to emphasize how our camp can help.
Demonstrate Modeling
Demonstrate
modeling by having staff of color. For many families,
we ease the transition to camp by showing that
there will be others who look, talk, or act like them. If you don't
have, or can't find diverse staff, institute systems to recruit
and develop a staff that reflects diversity.
Inviting
one or two token campers of color into an otherwise
homogenous camp program does not complete your
diversity work; developing relevant support systems
is vital, so that non-traditional campers don't feel alone and unsupported.
As Black owners, we find that other Black-Americans find it easy to
connect with us, whether as potential staff or potential camp families.
With other people of color, we can share the concerns of navigating
a predominantly white culture. With white families or traditional camp
families, our modeling is of experienced camp professionals who can
communicate the various benefits of our camp.
Promote and Support Diversity
Ensure that your camp programming promotes and
supports diversity. Assimilation to the dominant
culture should not be the goal — that
only marginalizes those to whom you are trying to reach out.
Our
program is quite intentional in addressing issues
of difference. Although avoiding such issues might
make shortterm camp "easier" — we
could just do fun, traditional camp activities
all day long — we
would miss opportunities to change our world for
the better. We have to be wary that, as problems emerge and difficult
conversations happen, we facilitate them in an emotionally safe space.
By learning and practicing conflict resolution techniques, the girls
express their feelings in a nonconfrontational manner. This gives us
a critical tool for moving forward as individuals and as a caring community.
Managed conflict is not a sign that things aren't going well,
but actually, that things are just getting better; we're addressing
tough issues safely and productively.
Communication
Establish relevant
lines of communication. Reaching non-traditional
campers mandates expanding your communications
repertoire. Be creative, especially when cultural barriers may inhibit
getting your message across. Some non-traditional parents assert, "I
love my child, so why would I send her away?"
We
need to communicate that it's
precisely because they love their child why they
should give her an opportunity for the human connections,
awareness of the natural world, independence, and
character development that only a quality camp
experience can provide.
It can sometimes be challenging
to foster word-of-mouth promotion where there is
a limited history of attracting certain camper
demographics . . . how do we create wordof- mouth beginning with a base
of zero? For example, in our first season, we were underrepresented
regarding Hispanic and Asian girls, despite trying different types of
outreach to members of those broad communities. In our second season,
by continuing to foster relationships with specific communities, we
were able to bring those relative percentages up to match or exceed
those of the general population. Establishing positive word-of-mouth
support didn't
necessarily mean direct camp experience, but also stemmed from affirmative
experiences with camp administration and during non-camp interactions.
In communicating the camp message to non-traditional campers, a useful
framework in deciding the kind of tools that may
suit your camp is to assess those with universal application and those
suited to pre-camp, during camp, and post-camp communications.
Throughout
the Process
Bilingual staff can greatly facilitate
communication with people whose first language is not English. There
are also online translation programs that can help you communicate via
e-mail.
Sadly, despite having a retired Spanish professor as a father,
I stubbornly refused as a child to learn Spanish,
and regret it to this day! I have a rudimentary understanding but otherwise
have to recruit bilingual staff so that campers and parents who speak
predominantly Spanish can communicate directly in their language of
choice. Additionally, I've used Google® translator www.translate.google.com/translate_t#
to facilitate e-mail communications with Spanish-speaking
parents. Cultural awareness also motivates me to speak to each parent
as an individual — across
professions and economic circumstances, navigating
racedependent conditions where a parent might be more comfortable with
certain slang usage, and being aware of language issues.
Pre-Camp Communications
When folks are relatively amenable to hearing the
camp message, some promotional avenues that can help are to develop
bilingual promotional materials like Web site pages, brochures, and
DVDs. You can also use targeted radio or print ads.
We haven't yet developed
a completely bilingual Web site or brochure, but
re-evaluate the prospect quarterly. We have advertised on a radio station
that targets a predominantly Black-American audience, and others that
target progressive audiences.
When people aren't
necessarily ready to hear the camp message, a slower
build requires a more labor-intensive approach
tapping into non-traditional camper bases. You
can collaborate with community partners with established
relationships with people of color. You can partner with schools or
parent associations. You can offer family weekends. You can offer scholarships
or contests, and organize camp presentations. You can partner with parents
who can serve as camp volunteers.
As a camp, we have reached out to
a variety of organizations, with varied levels
of success. We have established relationships with Boys and Girls Clubs,
regional YWCAs, charter schools that predominantly serve students of
color, business groups and social networks of color, and others. This
type of relationship building doesn't always provide instant gratification,
but has borne fruit over time.
Once you have successfully recruited
non-traditional parents to your camp, you need
to ensure their comfort, which in turn eases their
camper's
transition to camp, provides for a better camp
experience, and leads to that all important positive word-of-mouth.
There must be extensive director-parent communication. You're
not facilitating the pejorative "helicopter
parent" syndrome (a parent paying such close attention to a child's
experience that child development is inhibited);
you're exposing
the benefits of camp to people who would otherwise
be reluctant to help evolve the camp culture.
For us, extensive communication
with parents is fun and life-affirming. It's great
to evolve relationships from reluctant consideration of camp, to camp
registration, to raves about how camp changed their child for the better.
During Camp Communications
Here's where difficult decisions arise.
Many camps have long-standing policies prohibiting direct parent-child
communication. Since many non-traditional parents find it unfathomable
to send a child away to spend a week or two with
people they don't know, it can seem crazy to that parent to be told
that they can't communicate with their child. There are a few potential
solutions. You can work hard to establish a level of confidence in your
judgment and experience so that they will trust that such parent-child
communication may inhibit their child's
growth. Alternatively, you might allow parents
to stay in touch with their children — perhaps allowing incoming
calls during meal times, or having computers available for occasional
e-mails home. You might contemplate a modified "open camp" policy,
where first-time camp parents can drop in and see for themselves that
their child is okay.
Although we continually evaluate our program, we
have so far chosen to not allow direct parent-child
communication during camp; we encourage the exchange of written letters
and allow incoming parent e-mails. For us, the trust established before
camp, combined with our nurturing of parents who need a little more
support, gives our parents the confidence to entrust their child to
us. We also post hundreds of pictures daily, so that parents can see
for themselves their daughters' smiling
faces.
Post-Camp Communications
Post-camp communications
provide a great opportunity to continue building
on a good camp experience and really build positive
word-of-mouth. The director who calls just to say
hi and see how a child is doing shows how the camp family can be integrated
with the home family. You can also consider counselor-parent communication,
especially if you have bilingual staff and non- English speaking parents.
You can ponder counselor-camper communication.
As with the pre- and
during camp communication, the post-camp follow-up
is heart-warming, allowing us the fantastic honor of being surrogate
parents sharing in the life of our campers.
None of this is easy. Intentionally
recruiting diverse staff and campers poses significant
challenges, including investing more time and effort than just doing
the same old, same old. It's hard to establish the support systems
and intentionality in staffing and programming
to further a mission of enhancing diversity. But it's worth it. Opening up the camp
experience so that all children have the opportunity to go to camp and
feel supported is a momentous reward of intentionality.
Because we've
been intentionally diverse, from Kupugani campers
I've learned that we can see and move beyond stereotypes. By exposing
children to folks of other cultures and backgrounds, we can broaden
their choices beyond defining their community based strictly on skin
color or cultural background. They can celebrate their ethnic background
while embracing the larger culture. They can revel in the amazing economic
and ethnic diversity of folks who call America home. The "land of opportunity"
can offer, as it does at camp, the chance to connect in a meaningful
way with a wide variety of folks. As camps in general, we can't be
satisfied with the status quo or status slow; it's
time to move forward. To get to 20/20, we must act now.
Acknowledgements
Portions of this article were adopted from a seminar
called "Widening the Circle" I co-presented at the ACA MidStates
Conference in March 2008 with Marina Lukanina and Angel Sanchez, and
from an essay entitled "A Canadian-born of Jamaican
Parents Tells His Tale" published in the Chicago Tribune Web edition
on April 29, 2008. Some of the recruitment tips
were adapted from www.diversitycouncil.org/recruiting_diverse_staff.shtml.
The "I Am From"
activity referenced is courtesy of Maketa Wilborn
of the New Worlds Project.
References
U.S. Census Bureau (2008,
August 14). Press Release, http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/
releases/archives/population/012496.html.
American
Camp Association (2007). Compensation and Benefits Survey Residential
Camp Summary.
Originally published in the 2009 March/April
issue of Camping Magazine.
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