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The ROP process will help teach:
  • An ability to identify personal strengths and fears
  • Listening skills
  • Speaking skills through discussion of individual’s own life stories
  • Steps toward self-empowerment
  • An understanding of sense of self

Under One Sky Camp



Junior Journey Camp
Ages 7-12
Gathering together with supportive counselors who are trained in trauma-informed approaches to working with children. For the season of 2021, Camp starts in April  and meets one Saturday a month as a day camp ending with a Friendsgiving Celebration in December. Camp will be operating on the beautiful campus of Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, NC. Youth learn coping skills, enjoy nature as a healing tool, experience self-expressive workshops, and make friends who are also in foster/substitute care. Young people leave our program with more confidence, the feeling that they are not alone in their experience, and more preparedness to continue their foster or adoptive path.

Journey Camp
Ages 12-17
For the season of 2021 Camp starts in April and runs through December with an ending celebration called Friendsgiving.  Youth are invited to participate in a day camp experience one Sunday a month with a supportive and dedicated community of counselors, staff, alumni of Journey Camp, and peers who are also in foster/substitute care.  Camp will be held on the beautiful campus of Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, NC. While enjoying fun and nature based activities young people will build their confidence, discover activities in which they can express themselves, and prepare for their future path of continued foster care/adoption/reunification/transitioning into adulthood from foster care. Goals through camp include improving peer relations, learning to live in a cooperative community, establishing healthy living habits, and enjoying new experiences, and lighthearted fun.

R.O.P./ Passages

The ROP program is designed for males ages 15-17 who are in foster care and who are ready for a more in-depth experience. 

The Passages program is designed for females ages 15-17 who are in foster care and who are ready for a more in-depth experience. 

 Mentor Program

Ages 7-17. Youth are paired with a supportive adult mentor who commit to being in contact with the mentee twice a month for the entirety of a year.

Care Circle

Peer support group for Young Adults 18 years or older who have experienced foster/substitute care.

Who Do We Serve?

We serve youth in foster care, youth in kinship care, those who have been reunified, those in group homes, and who have been adopted from foster care, ages 7 through 17, throughout North Carolina. Our program supports children who are designated Level I and Level II; children designated Level III will be evaluated for eligibility on an individual basis. Youth are invited to attend regardless if they are on adoption track, or their goal is reunification with their birth family or kinship placement. We will carefully review each youth through our intake process.  This process includes an intensive intake questionnaire and sometimes an additional individual meeting with the social worker to help determine if Under One Sky will be able to support the individual youth in the ways needed.

Staffing & Camp Location

Each camp will maintain at least a 3-1 ratio of staff to youth and include two full-time leadership team members. In addition, workshop instructors, which are project specific may also be present. Camp is held at Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Activities

Activities support our program objectives and the therapeutic goals of each child, and can include the following:

  • Discovery workshops that give youth opportunities to create, learn and discover( carpentry,theater, photography, etc)
  • Skills workshops that build life, career and social skills
  • Talking circles and groups
  • Group games, puzzles and challenges
  • Team building activities such as ropes courses and Scavenger Hunts
  • Recreational opportunities—swimming, fishing, and archery
  • Team chores and responsibilities around camp

Key Program Components

  • During the pandemic camp operates  as a once a month day camp from April-November with an additional Friendsgiving Celebration and Presentation in December. Their are nine total days of  camps for each age group- Junior Journey(youth 7-12yrs old) and Journey(youth 12-17yrs old), these groups will each have their own camp day.
  • Intake is done individually with each youth’s social worker, then youth are invited to join a "welcome to camp"  meeting with the Camp Director and/or the Youth Services Director.
  • Opportunities for youth to engage in collaborative creative projects. When youth are engaged with a collaborative project they are invested in – the project becomes a classroom with inherent opportunities for discovering one’s own gifts (building, design, leadership, etc.) and for therapeutic, social, educational, and learning experiences.
  •  Youth help choose camp activities which in turn helps create a safe container for making choices, mistakes, accepting responsibility, and providing opportunity for redirection
  • Talking circles encourage youth to speak authentically and listen compassionately, which provides opportunities for trust-building, self-reflection/awareness, and connection; talking circles can explore attitudes and beliefs about adoption and other forms of permanency, life path dreams, relationships and sharing one’s own story
  • Youth have the opportunity to create a vision for their lives that is big enough to change as they grow. They also invited to identify attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that they want to release and those they want to invite into their lives (such as anger and forgiveness).
  • Social workers receive a written summary of camper’s performance after each camp via email

Objectives

  • ​Prepare youth ages 12-17 for a healthy transition to the next phase of their lives (stepping stones toward their future may include reunification with birth family, adoption, relational permanence with a support adult, a new foster care placement, continued secondary education, post-secondary education, vocational training or aging out of foster care) 
  • Develop youths’ healthy behaviors, coping mechanisms and self-efficacy skills in order to promote positive relationships and the ability to successfully seek out social settings and environments that support their own positive development now and in the future
  • Surround youth into an environment of peers who have also experienced foster/substitute care In order to allow heartfelt sharing and understanding. Many youth come to realize they are not alone.
  • Cultivate internal leadership skills that promote self-leadership as well as leadership within various social and work venues
  • Establish permanent connections to a mentoring community of supportive adults as well as positive, lasting and meaningful peer relationships
  • Explore life path goals and assess what is needed to achieve those goals, what already exists and what needs to be developed
  • Create opportunities for youth to reclaim their self-esteem/self-worth, promote a sense of belonging and acceptance among peers
  • Develop or deepen creative skills and life skills such as communication, writing, building/carpentry, film making, photography, art, music, cooking, etc. that enhance self-confidence, self-esteem, self-awareness and provides opportunity to meet with success, which in turn stimulates the desire to be successful in other aspects of life
  • Build skills that will prepare youth to assist and mentor other youth in navigating a successful journey to adulthood
  • Allow the youth to be kids and have fun!!!

Why This Model?

This model is based on the successful strategies of Under One Sky Passages Camp 2004-2009 and Journey Camp 2011-2013 based on the following philosophies:
  • Youth learn from each other and have greater opportunity to make positive shifts in attitudes and beliefs in a group peer setting, rather than individually
  • Youth respond positively and whole-heartedly when they are given choices in designing activities and creating future plans
  • Youth have the ability to make critical decisions that will shape their life path given the freedom, guidance and encouragement from adult mentors
  • Youth develop healthy and often lasting peer relationships, and experience belonging when they can share their stories and experiences with other youth in foster care