The vision of the “Camp Endeavor ” is to develop multi- satellite camps in schools throughout Philadelphia catered to the schools individual schedule and culture.
The mission of Camp Endeavor is to provide elementary school aged students with a hands-on, holistic, educational experience with a strong focus on integrating science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with the literacy. The organization will provide students with opportunities to participate in field learning experiences, allowing them an interactive framework to “touch, see, and think” about the world around them. Students will participate in hand-on activities that will encourage them to explore STEM through reading and nature, empowering them to explore and gain an enthusiasm for STEM that will contribute to their learning environment. Click here to go to our webpage.
Five thousand, is the minimum number of children that miss 30 days of accumulated instructional time due to suspensions, extended timeouts, tantrums, etc. in elementary schools in Philadelphia. Most schools see the need for emergency intervention after 15 days. A large portion of this can be attributed to toxic stress, which is inherited from broken homes, traumatic situations, physical and/or emotional abuse, neglect, and constant viewing of violent neighborhood situations. It has been proven that growing up in these conditions can disrupt brain development and cause severe lapse in the ability to cope with stressful situations.
What we are doing is giving children their thirty days back by creating in schools summer and aftercare programs that cater to the schools’, culture, schedule, values and climate, while incorporating our own program that gives holistic education to the child. We provide this education by approaching a child from three angles – reading and literacy, STEM education, and social-emotional development.
Our literacy program has an active mission to fight the “summer slide” in which students tend to ‘slide backwards’ in their literacy levels during summer breaks when their literacy skills are not nurtured or reinforced. We partner with programs such as the Eagles Youth Partnership, the Philadelphia Read by 4th initiative, and even build our own portable library that gives our children up to 20 books to read throughout the summer. So far, we have ensured that 100% of our program participants have maintained their reading level throughout the summer using small group tutoring, pre- and post-camp testing, a rigorous curriculum and through local literacy program partnerships. We measure our results by testing children at the beginning and end of camp to ensure that they at least maintain, if not move up by one reading level.