COMMUNITY + CULTURE +

COMMUNITY + CULTURE +

As a member of the Brave Trails staff, you are now entering a supportive and affirming space where we celebrate each other’s differences. In this training, you will learn more about how we create the safe space at our camp and your job to ensure campers and fellow staff feel valid and seen at camp.

Please review the Brave Trails community + culture page. When you are finished reviewing this page, please complete the community + culture quiz.

CREATING AN INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT

As Brave Trails staff members, it is crucial that we are creating an environment where our campers can express themselves authentically without judgement. We work hard to hire a staff that understands that camp should be a space for our campers to explore their gender and attraction identity. This is a safe space for our campers and staff to expand their identity without fear of judgement or shame. The most important thing you can do as a staff member is to always come from a place of curiosity. If you don’t know something, ask. If you do know, teach with kindness. Let’s build a community that gives us all the grace to discover new things about ourselves.

A couple other things to consider in creating an inclusive environment:

  • Viewing camp as a “utopia” vs viewing it as a “microcosm”. Saying camp is a utopia can feel really good to our souls, our memories, our experiences. However, when we view camp as a utopia, it makes it difficult to acknowledge that there are many areas for growth and evolution in our space. It’s harder to acknowledge any harm that has been done. - When we look at camp as a microcosm, a small interpretation of our society, that is a WAY more powerful way to look at our camp. A microcosm, like any society, needs to constantly evolve and learn. We want to use all of the things that make camp beautiful to drive us forward and encourage us to keep evolving. We always want our camp to be a place of progress, not perfection. This way, we are more open to feedback and hearing experiences that may be different than our own. This is a co-created space and we want you as a staff member to feel comfortable calling each other in and calling the camp in as a whole when needed!

  • Many times LGBTQ+ folks are put into the position of having to teach cis and straight individuals terms or knowledge they may not know. It is important at our camp that we do not put our campers in the position of having to teach. There may be times that a camper is excited to share about their identity or a term that you might not be familiar with but, it shouldn’t be assumed that they want to be the educator on their identity. If you don’t understand a term or identity that you hear while at camp, ask a director or fellow staff member.

    Here is a link to a glossary of LGBTQ+ terms. We highly recommend reading over some of these terms, especially if you are not often in LGBTQ+ inclusive spaces.

  • Summer camp, as an industry, is a primarily a white institution, especially residential camps. If you are returning to camp life you have witnessed the overwhelming lack of diversity within staff and campers alike. Camp life has been and still is a dominantly white space and Brave Trails is making strides to reclaim these narratives!

    The Three+ Forms of Racism:

    In a camp space we often see three main forms of racism: interpersonal racism, institutional racism, and systemic racism. If you feel at any point any of these forms of racism show up at camp, please talk to a director right away.

    • Interpersonal racism: racism that occurs between two specific people; this often occurs when a white individual is treating another person differently based off of their race. It can be in the forms of microaggressions, discrimintaion, implicit bias, and overall overt negative treatment of a person.

    • Institutional racism: racism within an organization's policies, procedures, and rules that favors one group over the others; this often happens when our implicit biases are baked into the way that an institution conducts business. It can be found within hiring, the training of staff, marketing, and supervisory structures. The organizational hierarchy of a business is designed to maintain the status quo of people in power. When those systems are not specifically designed to be anti-racist, the default is a system that reinforces racism.

    • Systemic racism: racism that is embedded within society that discriminates against poc. This is shown in policing, school-to-prison pipeline, prison industrial complex, banking, income inequality, redlining, food deserts, media reporting, and healthcare.)

    Supporting your POC campers:

    • Never assume your campers identities or their needs based off of their identities! For example: all of your campers have the right and the need for sunscreen no matter their skin color!

    • Make time and space for your kids to come to you!

    • Listen! Really listen! These kids have voices and needs that should never be overlooked.

    • Make sure to keep an eye out for unnoticed microaggressions from one camper or campers to another camper or group of campers. Refer to the clique rule.

    • Don’t ever put your kids up for explanation in situations that can be emotionally taxing on them. We are not here to have our POC campers teach us wrong from right.

    • Incorporating land acknowledgements and watching for campers that could make fun of them, as we will be incorporating them from now on within camp as this land is not ours and we are given the privilege to occupy, teach, discuss, gather, and celebrate identities on this stolen land.

    Anti-Racism Training at Camp:

    • Every camper will attend an Anti-Racism workshop led by one our our Racial Justice Coordinators. This training will help campers understand how they can be anti-racist in our space and beyond.

    Additional Learning:

  • It is extremely important that staff have an understanding of Transgender terms and issues happening that effect the Trans and Non-Binary community. If you are less familiar with Transgender terms and issues facing our community, please click on the links below to build your scope and knowledge.

  • Your job on staff will be to make an environment where all campers thrive. We do this by not expecting all campers to learn and pay attention the same way. Labels and diagnoses happen when a group of people have brains that function similar enough to warrant a category, but these categories exist more as spectrums than as strict boxes. Labels can be used to empower and uplift, or they can be used to segregate and dehumanize. We do not under any circumstances diagnose people at camp. We do however do our best to ensure we are providing a safe space for our neurodiverse campers and staff. Some campers and staff may disclose their identity and others may not. Regardless, it is important we are creating an inclusive environment for folks on the Neurodiverse Paradigm.

    At Camp, it’s important that we create an inclusive space for our neurodiverent campers to thrive. We do this by listening to campers individual needs around camp and do our best to accommodate their needs. All cabin counselors will receive camper applications prior to camp to give you information that is helpful for creating an inclusive space for your campers. Some examples of things we provide for all campers: fidget toys in program spaces, a quiet space for campers to go during a dance or loud evening program, allowing campers to wear noice canceling headphones during talent shows, providing campers transparency of the program (including a copy of the schedule) so they can know what to expect, etc.

BEHAVIOR SUPPORT & RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Camp is one of the only places in the world where community building and social/emotional growth are the main focus. Our campers have spent most of their lives in school, where the focus is academics, achievement, and meeting standards. Our camp goals are not met by checking milestone boxes on a list, they are met by connection.

When we think of connection at camp, a lot of the time we imagine team building games, ice breakers, name and pronoun sharing, and other similar activities. These are all great tools for helping build a foundation of connection. However, you rarely hear words like conflict, disagreement, and difficult emotions. These are words that tend to scare people and experiences we are often taught to gloss over or push aside. They are also extremely important parts of building a community of openness, growth, and connection. Conflicts and challenging behaviors are natural and expected occurrences when any group of humans gathers for any length of time. Camp is no exception! In fact, it is a space that is ripe with opportunity for growth and challenge.

Each and every one of us should be prepared to address challenging behaviors and conflict at some point. For some of us, a lot of our time is going to be spent addressing different levels of behavior and conflict. Our goal is to give you some tools to help your campers work through conflict together, as a community, and validate some of the deeper roots of surface level behaviors.


Understanding Challenging Behaviors

Camper behavior has many roots. It is not expected that one week at summer camp will change behavioral or interpersonal challenges a camper comes to us with. That is not our goal. Our goal is to help campers learn, grow, and have a safe summer camp experience. 

Each camper will come to us with a different background and understanding of the world around them. The more we work to understand some of our campers’ layers and cultural differences, rather than trying to make them behave like what you believe is the “perfect camper”, the more your camper will trust you and be able to learn from you. We will be much more successful as a team if we stretch to meet our campers where they are.

We aim to work against punishment culture and instead work toward restorative justice, which heals and builds relationships. We want to move away from immediate dismissals at camp and instead work to meet an unmet need, understand past trauma, or heal harm between campers. 


TOOL #1: Try to meet or gain a deeper understanding of a camper's potential unmet needs.

The vast majority of the time, campers are not coming to us hoping to have a terrible time at camp, they are hoping to have a good time. When a camper is struggling, it’s because there are obstacles keeping them from doing well. The challenge for us is trying to understand what some of those obstacles might be and seeing if we can try to meet their needs. 

These obstacles could be, but are not limited to:

  • Hungry, thirsty, tired, not liking the food, feeling too hot or cold, feeling like they miss cuddles or touch from loved ones.

  • Feeling physically or mentally unwell. Overstimulated. Anxious. Depressed. Experiencing Dysphoria. Feeling chronic pain, cramping, altitude sickness, changes in medication, medication making them feel icky.

  • Needing affection, feeling invisible, feeling powerless or like everything is unpredictable, feeling lack of security, missing home, missing their regular coping/relation mechanisms (alone time, cuddling with pets, tv, etc.)

  • Feeling like they don’t belong, feeling unincluded, feeling like their voice isn’t heard or valued, not feeling like every part of their identity is welcome, not feeling like camp is what they expected, they don’t want to go back home.

  • trama from home, family, school, past camps, covid19, medical experiences, peer experiences, abuse, neglect

We do not expect you to be able to meet every single one of these needs. What we hope you gain is a deeper understanding of what may be going on for campers beneath the surface level challenging behavior you are witnessing. Sometimes having a level of empathy and knowledge about a camper's struggles helps us be better mentors and caregivers to them.

TOOL #2: Understand racism and Cultural Needs (which are also basic needs!) - From Simon Gamble’s “Fighting racism at camp”

As part of our role to ensure we are creating a inclusive space at camp, we need to ensure we need to understand racism and the cultural needs of our campers.

These basic needs are, but are not limited to:

  • Black and brown bodies have been and continue to be criminalized, just for existing. This is often continued in education and camp spaces. Black and brown campers are often sent home earlier, disciplined more harshly, and given less understanding and patience. Some of our campers may have a level of distrust with us until they know we will not treat them this way. This is why the restorative justice techniques we are going to discuss are important as well as our ongoing efforts to have more staff of color on our team and move into leadership positions.

  • Many of our campers have been ignored or silenced on issues of racism and injustice. Campers and staff members should feel encouraged to speak up because ignorance of these issues is actually violence for People of Color. (Examples: Silencing conversations around Black Lives Matter, Indigeonus resistance, colonialism, Asian and Pacific islander violence)

  • There is often a lack of understanding of daily needs that are specific to certain cultures or bodies. We want to accommodate and celebrate these needs/differences, not shame them. Examples: Some campers will need more time to do their hair in the morning or after swimming. A Muslim camper may need to take time to pray several times a day.

  • Cultural Appropriation is the unacknowledged and inappropriate adoption of the practices, costumes, and aesthetics of one social or ethnic group member of another. This is rampant in many camp spaces. If you see this in our space, please educate the person and ask them to stop or if you do not want to educate, please tell a director right away and we will do so.

    Examples of Cultural Appropriation:

    • Using the words “Pow-pow” or “spirit animal”

    • Dressing up in a costume that includes an afro, kimono, Hawaiian grass skirt, etc.

Tool #3: Be patient with yourself AND OUR YOUTH. Camp Is a learning space.

YOU WILL MESS UP. We are looking for effort, genuine care, and progress, not perfection. Remember you are not alone in this. We are one team, one unit. We are here to support each other. Don't feel like you have to hold any of this alone. View additional learning in many of these areas at the bottom of this webpage!

THE CIRCLE SYSTEM

for healing person-to-person harm or conflict at camp with restorative justice

The Circle System is the tool we use when harm has been done between people at camp. The goal of the Circle System is to heal harm, to mitigate future harm, and to build community. The Circle System is a super simple idea that basically says, let’s talk about it and brainstorm together how to get what we are wanting. We were introduced to the Circle System from Camp Stomping Ground. The Circle System is an adaptation of “council”, a concept created by indigenous cultures to share stories, connection, and heal harm.

As a staff, our greatest challenge with The Circle System is allowing campers to work through their conflicts with their voices, not ours. We will be there to ensure all voices are heard, listened to, and respected, but we DON'T want to solve the problem for them. 

The circle system takes the power away from being 100% focused on policy and puts it into the hands of the people involved in the conflict. 

Setting Up The Circle

    • Small Circle - Just the people in conflict.

    • Medium Circle - The people in conflict and an informal staff mediator.

    • Large Circle - The people in conflict, Director(s), and other appropriate community members -witnesses, support people, and relevant experts.

    We ask that all campers and staff talk through conflict when it comes up. But we don't force people to work through stuff right away. It can be really painful and ineffective to talk about conflict if you are still fuming or stuck in the need to prove the other person wrong.

    It's ok to circle back around, just as long as eventually we come together to sort out what happened in an effort to learn and re-establish trust.

  • Ensure each person in the circle understands their role and how they can best support the forward movement of the circle process.

    FACILITATOR

    • Outlines the circle agreements and interrupt members of circles if they’re not following agreements.

    • Start rounds with opening questions

    PARTICIPANTS

    • Speak from your perspective.

    • Don’t hold back; be vulnerable and honest.

    • Say what you mean but don’t say it mean.

    • Think about what you say as if you are talking with close friends.

    BYSTANDERS & SUPPORT

    • Listen

    • Speak from your perspective, if it’s helpful to the forward movement of the discussion.

    • Don’t try to solve the problem, allow the participants to do so..

    • No shame or blame.

  • The facilitator will explain each of the guidelines out-loud to the group.

    • One Mic: everyone gets a chance to talk and speak their truth without interruption , don’t talk over one another.

    • Use “I” statements. Speak from your experience.

    • Vegas Rules: “What happens in the circle, stays in the circle”- Keep things confidential and trust each other.

    • Ask for what you need.

    • Choice: You can’t force someone to be in a circle.

Basic Circle Outline

Led by the circle facilitator

Intro:  The person who called the circle explains why they called the circle.

Round 1: Each person shares what happened from their perspective and how they see the conflict.

Helpful questions for restorative conversation: 

  • What happened?

  • What were you thinking about during the time of the incident? 

  • What have you thought about since? 

  • Who has been affected by what happened and how?

  • What about this has been the hardest for you? 

Round 2: Each person shares how they’re feeling as a result of conflict. 

Round 3: Each person shares a need they have moving forward. 

Offering an opportunity for each person to say what they need going forward is often the hardest but most important part. Giving participants the opportunity to brainstorm solutions or new boundaries together allows them to own the results and become more invested moving beyond the conflict. 

Round 4: Agreements are made as to how they move forward together. 

End: Ensure everyone understands the outcomes of the circle. 

  • Thank them for their honesty and vulnerability. It’s not easy.

  • Plan a time to check-in if needed. 

  • Let them know another circle can be called at any time, if they need it.

View The Circle System Guide Sheet
 

Training Quiz

Please complete the Community + Culture Quiz. All staff members must complete this quiz by May 1st!

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