Camp Safe Berks, a project of Safe Berks, is a fun and interactive summer day camp for Berks County youth who are interested in issues of social justice and change.
Participants in the camp will explore the existence of inequality and violence in our society, and how they can participate in significant social change. Campers will also play games, participate in creative activities, have fun, and meet new friends and positive adult role models!
Camp Safe Berks is an annual project of the Safe Berks Education and Outreach Department with the help and support of volunteer and professional community partners.
The goal of the Camp Safe Berks Project is to encourage young people to work together within our community to foster a multicultural society based on love, caring, and justice –with the ultimate goal of decreasing violence by creating a more inherently peaceful society.
The Camp Safe Berks team is recruiting a diverse group of up to 30 youth campers, ages 13–18 (current seniors), to participate in a five–day summer day camp which will take place at the DoubleTree Hotel in Reading, PA from July 26th–30th, 2021 from 8:30 AM–4:00 PM. All campers will attend “on scholarship,”or free of charge. Food and transportation will be provided.
The camp utilizes the Second Edition of Helping Teens Stop Violence, Build Community and Stand for Justice by Allan Creighton and Paul Kivel, as well as the curriculum Making the Peace, by Paul Kivel, Allen Creighton, and Nell Myhand, of Oakland, California. The Making the Peace curriculum provides the framework for understanding violence, and the role of gender, race, class, and economic status as the issues which contribute to it. Further, the program was written to help young people break away from violence, develop self–esteem, and regain a sense of community.
This project, in its new approach to enlist young people to aid in the elimination of violence, the fostering of respect, the promotion of social justice, and ultimately peace, within our community, has become a pilot for other similar projects throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For additional information about the Camp Safe Berks Project, contact Delio Santana, Interim Director of Education and Outreach, at 610–370–7810 or email [email protected].
Applications are due by July 16, 2021. Camper Applications can be delivered or mailed to: Safe Berks, 255 Chestnut St., Reading, PA 19602.
