Being a CIT at a summer camp for disabled kids?
I have a rising 9th grader who is interested in being a CIT at a summer camp for disabled kids (with ASD, physical, intellectual disabilities or medical issues) . Does anyone know of opportunities for a young teen to be an aide or CIT at such a camp? He has functioned already as a "buddy" for kids on the autism spectrum in adaptive PE and is very effective and empathetic with kids who have special needs.
Nov 19, 2016
Parent Replies
My daughter has volunteered for public school Extended School Year for disabled students.
ESY runs 2 weeks end of June and 2 weeks beginniing of August. Have him reach out to school districts, they usually love the extra help He will need a TB test clearance.
Such a wonderful thing for your child to do! I highly recommend Camping Unlimited/Camp Krem in Boulder Creek. In addition to their summer camp program, they do many events in the Bay Area throughout the year. I did some volunteering with them while in high school and loved it.
http://campingunlimited.org/
I'm sorry for the late reply. Your son sounds like an awesome kid to want to help others! In addition to looking at camps themselves, your son might want to look for positions as an aide to individual kids. There are many children who need additional support to attend camp with neuro-typical kids. I have a child who needs this kind of summer support and so am familiar with the process. Often the aide is a high school or college age young adult who is hired directly by parents, not the camp. The aide attends camp with the child and act as a buddy who provides support as needed, blending in with the other CITs at camp as much as possible. Aides need to be reliable and able to spot when support is needed - as well as a good communicator with adults. Not dissimilar from what is needed in a typical summer camp counselor. Most parents will start looking in early March for support aides and often use local online hiring sites such as Localwise and BPN - I will be starting my own search soon. Feel free to contact me if you would like more information on how this works.
Hi,
I am also seeing this a bit late, but my HS daughter helped out at a special needs camp in Lafayette called Camp We-Go for the past 2 summers. They have two 2-week sessions and ask CIT types to commit to at least a 2-week session (usually they are run in July).