Program Summary

To better prepare young volunteers to work with youth ages five years to twelve years old the District has made some revisions to the Junior Counselor program. This more formalized training program will occur for one to three hours each morning. Following the morning sessions, the Junior Counselors will be assigned to assist camp Counselors with traditional camp activities as in the past. The curriculum for the new program will focus on developing Junior Counselors (JC) in many areas that will better prepare them for volunteering at camp and for potential future jobs as Counselors in Training.

Training

This formalized training program will focus on the role of the JC including;

• Working with youth
• Tracking volunteerism and community service hours
• Understanding inclusion and working with special needs populations
• Managing behavioral issues
• Conflict resolution skills
• Safe practices for engaging youth in an outdoor setting
• Emergency action planning
• Leadership and team building
• Fundamentals of activity planning and organization
• Risk management
• American Red Cross First Aid and CPR
• Safe food handling
• Arts and crafts projects
• Nature/Outdoors interpretation and education
• Organizing special events
• Leading safe field trips
  

As with any program HARD offers, scholarships are available if the activity fee poses financial hardship. Program fees will be used to offset the cost of training materials, activities and travel, staff apparel and personal equipment.

Upon successful completion of the two-week training program, successful JCs will be able to volunteer at camp for additional weeks at no cost.