would I do it again?

At the moment we are trialling a few camps in partnership with the Department for Child Protection for foster children so their carers can have some respite. It is one of the key initiatives of the department since they underwent an extensive review last year. One of volunteer’s who led on this program Jess wrote of her experience on this new camp, she writes;

“People ask me how it went, and I tell them little bits and pieces. It has been one of the most challenging things that I have done. It has been heartbreaking. It has been brilliant. Would I do it again? Well, there is another camp just around the corner…and I am going!!

A while ago I was approached to help out on a new venture that SU has started in conjunction with the Department for Child Protection. They were going to start running respite for carer’s camps. I signed up without really knowing the ride that we would be in for.

Our first camp was in March, and it was with the ‘little children’ 8 – 14 year olds. There was a bunch of leaders, and I thought that we had prepared pretty well. However, we were not really prepared for the needs of the kids that we had. Challenging is how I would describe that first camp.

The children on this program come from difficult backgrounds and some heartrending situations. Many of them had developed what I call ‘survival’ skills (read; “some really difficult behaviours”). There were a few moments where it got a little kid nation, with feral adult attitudes cropping up and some verbal and a few physical altercations. That said there were some beautiful moments. The second night, after a day of behaviour that shocked me (maybe I’m sheltered?) the girls settled into the dorm for a…sing-a-long. It was amazing to watch them encourage each other and build each other up, something that I did not think could happen after the day that they had had!

We learnt a lot from that camp. The second camp was in April, with 12-17 year olds. James and Adam, the camp organisers extraordinaire, had planned it so there was no down time at all which meant no time for craziness. The second camp went delightfully.”