How One Summer Camp Is Giving Kids With Special Needs a Better Future

Camp Ramah California campers bag groceries at Rainbow Bridge Natural Foods. Photo courtesy Camp Ramah.
Camp Ramah California campers bag groceries at Rainbow Bridge Natural Foods. Photo courtesy Camp Ramah.

Camp Ramah

, a group of North American summer camps founded in 1947, is pioneering an innovative program to teach real-world job skills to its campers with special needs. Three of the group's eight overnight camps have implemented the program, where young people with disabilities and/or special needs can learn everything from office etiquette to how to live with roommates. The program, which is currently only available to young people of Jewish descent, is now a model for camps all over the country who want to provide similar services.

"The idea was to offer camping to people with disabilities and it was a natural part of camp," Howard Blas, the director of "tikvah" (which translates to "hope") at Camp Ramah, tells Yahoo Shine. The program began in 1970, making it the first of its kind. "Typical campers finish at 16, and we created this program that goes to 21. This job training and living with other people are skills you really need. The goal is to partner with programs that give outside employment."

And they've succeeded. Campers have several job-training options based on their skills and interests, including working in the mail room, the cafeteria, and an on-site motel. Alums of the program have found full-time jobs at companies like Walgreen's, TJ Maxx, and Stop N Shop. In addition to learning practical skills, Blas and his team also work to teach what they call "soft skills," such as how to handle personal conflicts at work and when it's appropriate to check your phone.

And it isn't only the campers who benefit from Ramah's program. Many proud parents bring their children back year after year and get to watch them grow and evolve. "The Voc-Ed program at Camp Ramah in New England has been a wonderful opportunity for our daughter Rebecca to explore her independence, under the watchful eyes of a caring staff," says one dad, Stephen Boro.

"Camp has helped Sam in so many ways," says Judith Beck, whose son began as a camper and now works as a staff member at the camp's vocational program. "Self-care, organizing his belongings, handling frustration, accepting others’ disabilities, adhering to rules, appropriate assertion, self-reliance, assessing personal space — and most of all, behaving as a mensch!"

For Blas, who began working on Ramah's program at a time when special-needs kids were segregated from the rest of the population and educated separately, seeing these campers become "just one of the group" has been the biggest reward of all. And the program has expanded to include an every-other-year group trip to Israel, led and organized by Blas. The goal of the trip is to connect with Jewish identity, but it's also about learning how to travel without parents and reach the next step in independence.

 "[Parents] see that their kids are so happy when they're part of this inclusive community," Blas says. "They want their kids to be happy and develop relationships."

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