The New Year brings new HOPE and new opportunities for HAVEN. In 2022, HAVEN launched its partnership with Camp HOPE America, the first evidence-based camping and mentoring program to focus on youth impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, and trauma.
This past summer, in 2023, HAVEN welcomed its first Camp HOPE and Pathways cohort. Since then, the program has continued to flourish, seeing positive results for each participant.
Pathways Mentoring Program provides year-round, monthly events for children who have been impacted by domestic violence, sexual abuse, or trauma. By focusing on HOPE and finding PATHWAYS forward, the program focuses on building a fun, supportive, community for kids and their families.
Camp HOPE is a week-long sleepaway summer camp for kids enrolled in Pathways Mentoring who are ready to jump in. Camp HOPE provides summer camp fun and games in a supportive environment, creating space for the growth and healing that can happen when kids are given the opportunity to play, explore… and just be kids.
Camp HOPE and Pathways Mentoring is an evidence-based program, started in San Deigo, Calif., in 2002. Since then, it has grown to 44 affiliate programs in 25 states. HAVEN is thrilled to have become Camp HOPE’s only NH affiliate in 2023 and is excited to continue to grow this program. All programming is provided free of charge to participants.
Participant requirements:
Age 7-11
Resident of Rockingham or Strafford County
Has experienced or been impacted by domestic violence, sexual abuse, or trauma
Receiving supportive services
Camp HOPE is based on the Science of Hope, the belief that your future can be brighter than your past and that you play a role in making it happen.
This hope-based curriculum gives kids the tools to find their own pathways to resilience and healing.
After participating in Camp HOPE and Pathways Programming, youth showed significantly higher hope scores, which resulted in decreased depression and anxiety, more confidence, more optimism for the future, fewer behavior problems, and higher school achievement.
“My daughter came back from Camp HOPE feeling empowered, confident, and with a whole new outlook on her sense of self. She stepped out of her comfort zone with the help of her counselors and peers. She is still talking about finding hope and wishes there was a winter camp, so she doesn’t have to wait till summer,” one parent noted after their daughter returned from Camp HOPE.
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