Camp Fire’s first priority is making sure young people feel safe— both physically and emotionally.

If young people aren’t safe, nothing else matters.

Before we can achieve our mission of connecting young people to the outdoors, to others, and to themselves, we have to first support safety in all its forms. One way we support safety is by focusing on the whole child and their overall well-being.

When we say we focus on the whole child, we mean we pay attention to all the various components that impact the development of each unique child and youth. Stephanie Malia Krauss has helped us understand these components in her book “Whole Child, Whole Life: 10 Ways to Help Kids Live, Learn, and Thrive.”¹

What is well-being?

Camp Fire borrows the definition of our friends and partners at Alliance for Camp Health (ACH) to define well-being:

“Well-being is characterized by physical, mental, social, emotional and/or spiritual health, at the individual level.”

We also see well-being as a skill, one that can be developed and honed through exposure and practice. Well-being leads to optimal functioning as defined by each individual (see our definition of thriving!)

Well-being includes having a sense of purpose in life and a positive self-identity. It encompasses empathy toward others, motivation and meaningful contribution, and feelings of personal worth. Well-being also includes a connection (some might say relationship) with the natural environment.

Why do we prioritize Mental, Emotional, and Social Health?

We prioritize Mental, Emotional, and Social Health (MESH(+)) because growing up is hard.

Today’s young people were raised in recessions and are survivors of a global pandemic; they are growing up amid extreme weather, violence, extremism, divided politics, wars, and more. They have spent their whole lives living in disruption and rapid change, all of which has taken a toll on their mental health.

According to national survey data, 13.16% of youth (over 3.4 million youth) are experiencing serious thoughts of suicide. There are significant racial disparities for youth suicidality. In 2021-2022, the percentage of youth reporting suicidal ideation was highest among youth who identified as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (25%) and as more than one race (20%). Suicide rates are highest for American Indian and Alaska Native youth and young adults ages 10-24 (36.3 per 100,000). From 2018-2021, the suicide rate among Black youth and young adults increased 37%, the highest increase across race/ethnicity.²

There are also disparities among LGBTQ+ students in the U.S. According to the 2021 data, 45% of LGBTQ+ high school students reported seriously considering attempting suicide, compared to 15% of heterosexual students. Suicide risk not only places the life of the adolescent at risk but is also a marker for experience with trauma and other mental health issues.

While suicide risk is at the extreme end as a marker of mental well-being, poor mental health is associated with a host of other health risks, both during adolescence and into adulthood. Young people who feel hopeless about their future are more likely to engage in behaviors that put them at risk for HIV, STDs, and unintended pregnancy.³

We also cannot ignore the detrimental impact inequity has on a young person’s well-being. “The cumulative and compounding effects of an array of factors that systematically privilege white people and disadvantage people of color have permeated our country for centuries and continue unchecked…Structural racism is a root cause of many challenges facing young people…It establishes disadvantages for young people of color, and then exacerbates intersectional oppression based on gender, sexual identity, immigration status, and ability.”⁴

This is why our work is trauma-responsive and healing-centered and why Camp Fire continues to pursue equity in all that we do. We believe all youth should have equitable access to safety and well-being and strive to make that so in our programs.

Creating a culture of well-being

Camp Fire creates a culture of well-being where mental and emotional health are prioritized through intentional practices, programming, and activities.

All our affiliates are equipped with Camp Fire’s Foundational Practices Guide, a set of staff practices designed to integrate well-being into all our programs – from time in nature, routines and rituals, emotional check-ins, to relationship building.

Camp Fire also partners with The Kids Mental Health Foundation | On Our Sleeves to bring evidence-informed programming activities for kids ages 6-14 to our affiliates on topics like Gratitude, Emotional Empowerment, Belonging, and Kindness to proactively work on mental and emotional health. They are also an EXCELLENT resource for parents/families looking for mental health resources and support!!

We also uplift Emotion Coaching as a consistent practice that ALL staff who interact with youth in any way (including support staff) know and use. Emotion coaching is a process used to increase emotional awareness by supporting young people’s ability to understand their feelings, navigate them, and make choices they feel good about.

Low emotional awareness in youth has been shown to increase the severity of mental health problems.⁵

Camp Fire National trained local counselors, cooks, camp directors, and other camp staff on how to support youth in developing emotional awareness. This included training on:

• Acknowledging emotions
• Supporting young people to name emotions
• Discussing emotion causes

After the implementation of the emotion coaching training, program assessment scores went from low quality (2.67) to within average quality! (3.20)

This increase shows that staff are invested in creating opportunities for youth to recognize and work through their emotions, creating opportunities for better youth mental health.

Several of our camps have also added a staff position called an “Inclusion Specialist.” This role focuses on supporting campers’ transition to camp, particularly neurodivergent campers or campers with emotional, social, or behavioral needs. The Inclusion Specialist partners with families to create plans for campers, train counselors to support campers, and support all campers’ well-being. Click HERE for more on how inclusion specialists help campers navigate the new!

Well-being Specialists at Camp:

During summer, Camp Fire Samish has a Wellness Specialist on staff at their camp, Camp Kirby. This position ensures that young people’s physical, mental and emotional needs are centered during their time at camp.

The responsibilities of this position include:

• Work with cabin counselors to create an environment that promotes wellness for all campers. 
• Provide hands-on support to staff with campers as needed.  
• Understand, interpret, and observe all fire, health, natural disaster, and other safety rules. 
• Maintain necessary records on campers and camp programs. 
• Provide a fun and enriching environment for campers. 
• Keep campers safe and free from risk. This includes, but is not limited to ensuring adequate hydration, applying sunscreen, enforcing basic hygiene, supervising food intake, and enforcing visits to Health House as needed or required.  

“I was a CIT the first time we had a wellness position at camp, and that would be six years or seven years ago. I actually had a lot of medical issues when I was a camper.

And I remember the first time we had like an inclusion specialist or a wellness position, and it made a drastic change in my camp experience as a camper.”

Staff at Camp Fire Samish

“I think the [MESH(+)] team also has made it possible for kids to come to camp that wouldn’t have been able to before.

And those kids and those families have talked to us and they’re like, “this is absolutely incredible.”

Staff at Camp Fire Samish

Well-being initiatives

During the Summer of 2024, six Camp Fire camps participated alongside 38 other US-based camps in implementing the MyView Digital Empathy® Screening Tool to over 2,200 campers across the nation. Campers complete surveys via tablets at camp arrival. The data showed what campers were concerned, worried, or anxious about pre-camp and how they best like to handle such emotions, allowing the care team to immediately review the dashboard for high-risk responses and to make programmatic adjustments in real-time.

Camp counselors were also equipped with ACH’s MESH(+) Pocket Guide, written by counselors for counselors on how to handle difficult situations, how to create a culture where mental and emotional health is prioritized, and when to see additional help.

Let’s partner together to support youth!

If you are interested in partnering with Camp Fire and amplifying support for youth well-being, please email programming@campfire.org with your interest.

Learn More!