Utilizing Mindfulness as an Evening Reflection at Residential Camp

Utilizing mindfulness as an evening reflection at residential camps has been developed as a tool for use at the end of the day during residential camps, though language may be modified for use at the end of classes or day camps. The four lessons in this new 7-page publication of the UF/IFAS Florida 4-H Youth Development Program, written by Heather Janney, were developed as a way for youth to reflect on their activities throughout the day. It is recommended to do only one lesson 15-20 minutes per day.https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/4h412

Primary Disease Prevention for Southwest American Indian Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Camp in a Box

The goal of the American Indian Youth Wellness Camp in a Box was to engage, educate and empower families to improve their health and overall well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Camp in a Box was a 9-week program, inclusive of a 1-week intensive camp component followed by an 8-week booster component with content focused on nutrition, mental health and physical activity education. The Camp in a Box is a Tribal/Urban Indian-University partnership, and materials were developed to replace an existing weeklong residential camp and to comply with social distancing guidelines. Fourteen American Indian families from Tribal/Urban Indian communities in the southwestern United States participated (36 children aged 2–18 years; 32 adults). The intensive camp week included daily materials for families to complete together, Monday through Friday. Materials were provided for approximately 4 h of activities per day. The booster sessions began after camp week and included approximately 4 h of supplementary activities designed to be completed at any time most convenient for the family over the course of the week. Activities were designed to encourage interaction among family members with materials and supplies for parents and youth to participate. Self-reported outcomes suggested that families changed their eating habits to include more vegetables, less sweets and junk food. Parents reported an increase in family physical activity and that the activities brought the family closer together. Our Camp in a Box program was feasible and well-received until school began. During camp week, 100% of recruited families participated; at Booster Week 8, ten families (71%) remained enrolled and active. Camp in a Box is a feasible alternative to residential camps for promotion of health behaviors associated with metabolic disease prevention among American Indian families. In contrast to residential camps for youth, Camp in a Box offers an opportunity to engage the entire family in health promotion activities.

Exploring accessibility and social inclusion for children with hearing impairments in residential camps through the occupational therapy lens

Children are encouraged to engage in various play, leisure, and social participation activities to enhance the development of life skills, independence, and social skills. A common leisure and social participation activity for children aged 6 to 18-years-old is to attend residential camp. Residential camps provide children a structured opportunity to engage in leisure activities while learning to become independent and self-confident when socializing and making new friends. Attending camp can be a fun and engaging environment to help accelerate growth in key developmental outcomes, such as positive identity, social skills, physical skills, positive values, and spirituality. Within the residential camp setting, children are encouraged to become self-reliant away from their caregivers while participating in their activities of daily living; as well as explore new occupations such as learning new camp songs, swimming, hiking, crafting, archery and other activities provided by the camp. The introduction of the new occupations, in a new environment may present challenges for children with hearing impairments. By attending camp, the child has an opportunity to empower themselves by learning to self-advocate when they are unable to hear or need adapted services. Occupational therapists have the skills necessary to help develop camp programs to be comfortable, restorative, socially inclusive and therapeutic for children and adolescents with disabilities. Using occupation-focused skills and processes, occupational therapists are trained to advocate for and facilitate occupational outcomes that can enhance a person or group’s capabilities, social inclusion, and well-being. Within a residential camp setting, the focus of inclusion should target equal participation in activity, communication, and social acceptance of individuals with hearing impairments. The goal of inclusion can be accomplished through various techniques including policy and program development founded on the principles of social inclusion. The goal of this capstone project was to address the environmental and social needs of a residential camp to meet the physical and social needs of hearing-impaired children. Through the perspective of occupational therapy, camp counselors were provided education on strategies to encourage social skills, communication, and social inclusion within the camp environment. The process included a survey for camp staff with follow-up interviews, to gather information for the needs assessment that was used to create an educational module for staff. The guidebook incorporates inclusionary strategies to help the campers and the staff develop inclusive mindsets and social skills that can be applied within their daily lives. Throughout the guidebook are tips and tricks of inclusion from the occupational therapy lens, in addition to relevant data from the authors research study. The guidebook is then broken down into seven chapters that range from learning the basics about hearing impairment, the camp environment, inclusion strategies, and American Sign Language education.

Opportunities and Issues

“Opportunities and Issues” concludes the volume by predicting a bright future for social work in summer camps. Some trends include greater variability in session length, including an increase in one-week residential camps; an increased range of populations served; greater use of the camper care concept; novel approaches generated by early-career social workers; and investment by foundations and other organizations in innovative camp programming. Prospects include an increased role for social work personnel in camps, enhanced social work involvement in pre-camp and in-camp education, and opportunities to better communicate the variety of contributions that social workers can make in camps. Social workers can also develop increased expertise in linking children with appropriate camps, encourage recognition of camp social work as a field of practice, and urge agencies to support camp experiences for their clients and staff. Additional recommendations include nurturing university–camp connections and expanding research ventures.

SCALING THE SIZE, STRUCTURE, AND DYNAMICS OF RESIDENTIALLY MOBILE HUNTER-GATHERER CAMPS

Short-term hunter-gatherer residential camps have been a central feature of human settlement patterns and social structure for most of human evolutionary history. Recent analyses of ethnohistoric hunter-gatherer data show that across different environments, the average size of hunter-gatherer bands is remarkably constant and that bands are commonly formed by a small number of coresident families. Using ethnoarchaeological data, we examine the relationship between the physical infrastructure of camps and their social organization. We compiled a dataset of 263 ethnoarchaeologically observed hunter-gatherer camps from 13 studies in the literature. We focus on both the scale of camps, or their average size, structure, and composition, and the dynamics that governed their variation. Using a combination of inferential statistics and linear models, we show that the physical infrastructure of camps, measured by the number of household features, reflects the internal social organization of hunter-gatherer bands. Using scaling analyses, we then show that the variation among individual camps is related to a predictable set of dynamics between camp area, infrastructure, the number of occupants, and residence time. Moreover, the scale and dynamics that set the statistical variance in camp sizes are similar across different environments and have important implications for reconstructing prehistoric hunter-gatherer social organization and behavior from the archaeological record.

Welcome to the Bubble: Experiences of Liminality and Communitas among Summer Camp Counsellors

Summer camps provide a special time and space for youth growth and transformation. This growth is possible, in part, due to the physical and social isolation that contribute to the liminality of traditional residential camps. Camps act as a sort of ‘bubble’ in which alternative realities, norms and identities emerge. For many campers and camp counsellors, the community and personal relationships that develop at camp produce feelings of acceptance and belonging. Positive camp experiences do not occur by happenstance and as such, youthful camp counsellors often feel immense pressure to deliver on the promises that camps offer. This article explores the challenges faced by counsellors as they seek to create and maintain this liminal space. This paper discusses camp counsellors’ own reflections on their personal struggles with social isolation and the need to be accepted, effects of gossip in the close-knit community of camp, a lack of private time or space, and the emotional demands of caring for campers. The article concludes by suggesting how we might reconsider camp counsellor experiences and offers strategies to support counsellors as they navigate and negotiate camp experiences for both themselves and their campers.

Pre-Hispanic settlements in hydrometeorologically susceptible areas during the late Holocene: The Upper Delta of the Paraná River Case

In this paper, we present the results of the geoarchaeological studies carried out in two archaeological localities of the Upper Delta of the Paraná River (Argentina). The main objective of these studies is to depict the pre-Hispanic strategies involved in the colonization and settlement of southern South America wetlands. Paraná Delta is one of the most conspicuous areas of these lowlands and comprises a large wetland macrosystem. Its current geomorphological configuration was established after the last transgressive mid-Holocene event c. 6000 14C yr BP. In this environment, a high ecological heterogeneity, with diverse and abundant tropical and temperate biota, was developed. These features were important factors to the human colonization and utilization of these wetlands. However, this environment has the highest hydrometeorological susceptibility of La Plata basin. This susceptibility had an impact on settlement systems and resource exploitation strategies established in the area since at least 2000 14C yr BP. These strategies involved at least two settlement types: semi-permanent residential camps and transitory camps oriented to exploit particular resources. The semi-permanent settlements were located in anthropogenic elevated mounds, locally known as ‘cerritos’, and were not subjected to seasonal inundations. Conversely, the transitory camps are found in levees exposed to recurrent flooding.

Gilbert Dempster Fisher (1906–1985): the BBC's “Hut Man”, Scottish naturalist, children's author and radio broadcaster

As the BBC's “Hut Man”, Gilbert Dempster Fisher was a pioneer of radio broadcasting for children in Scotland in the 1940s and 1950s. Also a successful author of children's books on natural history, he based both his writings and his broadcasts on his observations of the wildlife that surrounded his isolated hut near Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire. Devoted to pedagogy, he established “The Hut-Man's Club” for children in the late 1930s and was foremost in the encouragement of natural history in Scottish schools. He also wrote poetry for young children and, from 1947 to 1950, he produced The children's magazine. During the last decade of his “Hut life” he was engaged by Scottish local education authorities to speak in schools and residential camps about nature study, captivating children with his “Hut Man” tales. He also engaged with teachers to help them deliver natural history lessons, writing a comprehensive guide book on the subject. The teacher-training authorities, however, failed to capitalize on his vision of nature study within the school curriculum. Disillusioned by their intransigence and faced with local environmental degradation of the Hut Country and inappropriate housing development locally, he moved east. In 1956 he was appointed Director-Secretary of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland administering Edinburgh Zoo. This paper concentrates on his “Hut Man” career as an author and radio presenter; the communication of natural history being its central theme, at a time when radio was becoming a popular medium of mass communication.