The Kids Need Camp campaign is all about ushering kids into camp and helping identify why camp is powerful for kids and for their families. There are a couple of different components that make camp a really effective tool for the development of kids.
Kids Need Independence
One of those things is that camp provides independence for kids, and research really shows that kids need independence. It helps them make decisions on their own. It helps them have some autonomy to be able to have the formative decisions and opportunities that they need to develop.
A Place of Belonging
Camp also provides a place of belonging for them. They get to meet new people from different contexts and different environments and find new friendships, lifelong friendships. Camp is a great opportunity to do that.
Unplugged Fun
So camp provides independence, it provides belonging, and it also provides a context for unplugged fun. Which we all know as parents that screens are calling us 24/7, and so the opportunity to give your kids play outside is so good for their brains and for their hearts. And so giving kids unplugged fun is just a great opportunity to get them outdoors in creation with their friends, having those experiences.
Faith & Character Development
And all of those things—the independence, the belonging, and the unplugged fun—feed into what is most important for us, which is faith development and character development. Kids Need Camp is all about the power that camp has to spiritually and faith develop these kids.
The opportunity that they have to develop spiritually while they're at camp, because of those things—of finding their people, of having that independence, of being away from the normal busyness of school and of life and of chores and of all of those things—is all about the opportunity to make some real choices and some steps in their faith and progress in that way. But they're also learning resilience and character and grit and determination, and so camp just really encompasses all of that.
Parents Need Camp Too!
But it's really not just about the kids; it's also about families as a whole and about parents. So camp isn't just for kids; parents need camp too. And so parents need that time to rest and to reset. It's good for parents to let their kids experience that independence and for parents to trust that their kids are going to be okay and to, um, to trust their kiddos to make good decisions in that way. And so it's great for them to have that opportunity as well.
A Mental Health Reset
One of the things that makes Kids Need Camp especially relevant for us right now is that kids are facing all-time highs for anxiety and mental health issues. And so we find that the, um, the ability to step away from their normal routine, from normal screens, from normal pressures of life is especially poignant right now and especially helpful for them.
Because it's giving them that opportunity to reset and to recharge, to connect with the Lord, and to really set up rhythms of life that are going to help them succeed and move forward in a healthy way.
Kids Need Camp
Kids Need Camp is more important than it's ever been before because kids really need that outdoor play, that independence, that belonging, and that sense of faith development with the people around them.
