Kansas City, MO – January 1, 2025 – Six years after launching CAMPER: Camp Accessibility, Meaningful Participation, and Equal Representation, Camp Fire will further our work to create more access to camp for young people who have been historically excluded from outdoor spaces through a third three-year grant.
CAMPER 3.0 represents an expansion of the project that launched with Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies’ funding in 2019, growing over the past six years to include 14 Camp Fire affiliates operating camps in the states of Alaska, California, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Washington.
In its inception, C.A.M.P.E.R. was created to remove barriers and expand overnight camp opportunities among historically excluded identities, including 1) young people from economically underserved backgrounds, 2) LGBTQ2S+ youth, and 3) young people with disabilities. Camp Fire’s goal is to ensure that all youth participating in its overnight camps feel welcome, emotionally affirmed, and physically comfortable – especially those who have been historically excluded from quality youth development experiences in the outdoors.
Now, after 6 years of continued support for C.A.M.P.E.R., Camp Fire is eager to deepen and expand this work with this third three-year grant.
This grant offers the opportunity to scale innovations in the form of program improvements, policies, practices, and procedures throughout Camp Fire’s national network. Specifically, the project aims to measurably scale accessibility and inclusion improvements that were piloted in CAMPER 1.0 and 2.0, with a targeted focus to serve youth who are LGBTQ2S+, youth from low-income backgrounds, and youth with disabilities.
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About Camp Fire
Growing up is hard. That’s why Camp Fire connects young people to the outdoors, to others, and to themselves. Founded in 1910, Camp Fire was the first nonsectarian, multiracial organization for girls but today is an inclusive national youth development nonprofit that serves all young people. By creating safe spaces where young people can have fun and be themselves, its 44 affiliates in 24 states provide affirming, year-round, youth-driven experiences—school day programs, afterschool programs, leadership programs, and camps and outdoor education—that enable youth to develop essential skills that have long-term benefits and make a positive social impact on the world.
For more information, please contact:
Erin K Risner, VP, Communication & Culture | Camp Fire National Headquarters, 913.289.4773, erin.risner@campfire.org
