More About the Program
A certified recreation therapist comes to assess each group prior to their visit.
The topics included in each group’s activity menu teach children concepts or skills they need for managing their lives better. Even though they’re learning, they sometimes don’t even realize that the purpose of their field trip is educational because they’re having fun as they learn! Whether they are children who would benefit from developing leadership skills or those who have more acute challenges, they learn by being involved in activities designed just for their needs. They learn, heal and grow through recreation.
Examples of concept areas are:
- leadership skills
- paying attention
- energy control
- independent thinking
- impulse and anger control
- communication
- time management
- awareness of one’s personal strengths and weaknesses
- making healthy choices
- doing service for others
- appropriate confidence
- self-expression
- responsibility
- sensitivity to the needs of others
- mainstreaming opportunities (Some groups who do not have certain disadvantages assist with those who do, such as children who are in wheelchairs or who are developmentally delayed.)
- tools for reaching personal goals
- outdoor educational activities with a lab provided by nature
Steps to bring a group to the camp are:
- A simple “Group Needs Assessment” form is completed by the person requesting a field trip. The certified recreation therapist discusses the most acute challenges of the group as well as the most hoped-for goals.
- Then the therapist comes to the location of the group and conducts assessments with the children / youth prior to the field trip.
- The “Activity Menu” for the field trip day is developed based on the information gathered from the leader and the youth. Consideration is given to the health, attention span, ways of learning, energy levels, ages, preferences of types of activities, ability to follow simple or complex directions, ability to work and communicate with others etc.
Most of the work has already been done before the bus arrives!
With a spirit of collaboration we welcome joint efforts responding to needs which are associated with community concerns such as domestic abuse, struggles related to medical needs, gang violence, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, school drop-out rates, performance below individual ability in all grades of school, crime, mental health issues, being unemployable, issues exacerbated by poverty and other types of social issues. These concerns as a whole are broad. However, the symptoms and individual problems are best tackled on the front lines with those who are impacted by and struggling with personal issues which they manage better with support.
Camp Discovery is open to collaborative approaches to a wide range of needs which face South Carolina communities.
One of the key camp traditions is “Leave your hat at the gate.” This means that we choose to avoid the “hats” we sometimes wear (financial, educational, social status, titles, professional.) We don’t care where someone’s home is or what their daddy drives. While involved with programs at Camp Discovery each person is valued for whom he or she is.