That’s why we were honored and thrilled to have four of our campers step up to join our YEA Camp Fundraising Team this year, in addition to all of the campers and families who have been participating in our first ever YEA Camp Volunteer-a-Thon! The Volunteer-a-Thon is an opportunity for our community to be sponsored in their activism, raising money for YEA Camp and raising awareness about their Issue of Importance. Adding an extra level of social accountability doesn’t hurt when it comes to achieving those big activist goals either! 

December is the only time of year when we ask our entire community to support YEA Camp, so we rely on year-end donations to be able to start accepting financial aid applications that are already starting to come in. 

Thanks to the support of two generous donors who recognize the importance of our work, this year, all donations given before December 31st 11:59 pm will be TRIPLED! So, a donation of $100 means we get $300. A donation of $1,000 means we get $3,000! 

We have such an incredible opportunity with this match, and such a need to be able to continue to fund our programs, so we are incredibly grateful for the YEA Camp Fundraising Team helping us to reach our goal.

Where Does the Money Go?

Before we introduce these rockstar campers, it’s important to understand why we fundraise. The simple fact is, not everybody can afford to send their kids to camp. In fact, this year, 51 of our 100 campers were on some form of financial aid. Seventeen of those campers received a full scholarship. 

At YEA Camp, we are committed to making camp accessible for all who want to be there, and to having a diverse group of campers who can learn from and support one another. This is only possible thanks to our generous donors, and we are so grateful for those who make this possible. 

Which brings us to those rockstar campers! Last year, our YEA Camp alumni jumped at the chance to reach out to our donors, sharing their experience at camp, and helping us raise money for the scholarship fund. Last year, Ashlee, Mia, and Sade answered the call and throughout the month of December reached out to our donors, helping us reach our fundraising goal. You can read more about their experience here. 

Meet the 2019 Fundraising Team

When it came time to make calls this year, Mia was the first one to raise her hand to do it again! Three other campers, also from our Massachusetts 2019 session of youth camp, joined. Here’s more about these amazing campers and what they had to say about the experience. 

Mia Jay-Pachirat, the team veteran, is a 2-time YEA Camper from New York City. Currently a high school senior, Mia is passionate about protecting the environment. She was so excited to be a part of the Fundraising Team because she “loves YEA Camp and wants to help others have that experience, no matter their financial position.” Mia also created a Volunteer-a-Thon page to raise even more funds for YEA Camp! 

Sam (left) and Mia (second from right) were two members of our Fundraising Team. Here they are at the Massachusetts session of camp this summer!

Sam Geller, a high school junior from Connecticut, is passionate about gun reform and likes to go to marches and rallies. Sam says he wanted to be part of the fundraising team because “YEA Camp was a life-changing experience for me. I learned so much about fundraising and friendship.” Check out Sam’s Volunteer-a-Thon page here. 

Mia Drumm is an 18-year-old high school senior from Louisiana who is passionate about veganism and animal rights. This was her second year at YEA Camp and her first year on our Fundraising Team. She was so excited to join the team in order to help increase financial aid opportunities for future campers. 

Fourteen-year-old high school freshman Isabella King came to Massachusetts YEA Camp all the way from Denver, Colorado. She “wanted to be on the YEA Camp Fundraising Team because YEA Camp was a really impactful experience for me, and I want to help ensure that everyone who is interested in attending YEA Camp has the opportunity to have that same experience.” 

We are so grateful for Mia, Mia, Sam, and Isabella and to everyone who donated to this fundraiser. We are so grateful for everyone who makes camp possible for so many people. 

To quote Mia Jay-Pachirat, “YEA Camp has changed my life. That may seem cheesy, but I have re-lit my activist fire, while making the best friends in the world — and all because of YEA.”

Can you help us make this life-changing experience available for more aspiring activists? There is still time to donate to YEA Camp. To learn more or make a contribution, click here. 

Interested in joining us at camp next year?

It may feel like summer is years away (especially as much of the country is hibernating in blankets under blankets of snow), but we are already planning for YEA Camp 2020 and are already accepting registrations. Check our the dates below. 

• Youth Camp: in Ventura, California (July 5 – 12) and Charlton, Massachusetts (August 1 – 8)
• Adult Camp: in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey (July 18 – 24)

Right now, we are also running an Early Bird special registration for $250 off those who sign up before the end of the year. Do you know someone who would be great for YEA Camp? Nominate them here!

The post Meet the YEA Campers Paying Forward Their Activist Experience appeared first on YEA Camp.

By having friends and family sponsor them in this activism, participants are raising money for the YEA Camp Scholarship Fund. The scholarship fund is a core tenet of the mission of YEA Camp. It makes camp accessible for all who want to be there. In the past decade, we have trained over 1,000 activists. None of that would be possible without the support of our donors.

This summer alone, YEA Camp gave financial aid to 51 of the 100 participants to a total of $66,400 worth of aid!

Triple the Impact

This year’s Volunteer-a-Thon is an opportunity to pay that gift forward. By giving to YEA Camp, you give a young person the gift of camp. You allow us to activate them with the knowledge, skills, confidence, and community that they need to make a bigger difference in this world. By participating in or donating to the Volunteer-a-Thon, you become a champion for someone’s activism. 

Thanks to two generous donors, we are making your dollars walk a little farther this year. From now until the end of the year, all Volunteer-a-Thon donations will be TRIPLED. Where else can you invest $20 and see $60 raised to support young changer makers?

Sometimes, though, it’s hard to quantify what that looks like. That’s why we’ve invited two time YEA Camper and Volunteer-a-Thon participant, Mia Jay-Pachirat to share her story. 

What YEA Camp Means to Mia Jay-Pachirat

Hello! My name is Mia. I’m 17 and have gone to YEA Camp for two years now.  I love it. Last year, my Issue of Importance (IOI) was climate change, and my action plan was to create an art zine, all based around solutions to climate change based in New York City, where I live. (Note: A zine is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images).

Through the Volunteer-a-thon, I have been working on this zine, and I’ve started to plan out the skeleton of it. I am hoping that next month I can start making it! I am thankful for YEA Camp for giving me this opportunity to pursue my passion because otherwise, I wouldn’t have the knowledge and the community to effectively pursue what I wanted to do.

YEA Camp has allowed so many kids to learn how to fight for the world we live on. This is so important because currently not a lot of adults in the government are fighting for what the youth is going to have to live with for many years to come. I think YEA Camp allows youth to make sure that they have the tools themselves to change the world and to right the wrongs that adults have made and continue to make.

I know, personally, that through YEA Camp I have become a much stronger and passionate activist than I ever was before. I’ve learned how to talk to people I don’t know about issues that concern me and how to do that in a positive, helpful way. Additionally, the friends you make at YEA Camp are the best friends you will ever make. YEA Camp friends care about issues that you care about, and they understand what it’s like to struggle with explaining yourself to others that don’t think the same way.

Mia’s Project

So on to my zine! My basic idea for my action plan was to start creating a zine, mass-produce it, and then hand it out on the streets of New York. That didn’t work out because of school and schedule conflicts with my going through the college process. But after talking to my art teacher and making up a plan with her, she’s allowing me to do my zine in art class during the school day. I’m going to start producing a magazine next week. I have everything planned out and I am super excited.

By donating and creating a page for the Volunteer-a-Thon you’re helping so many kids have the opportunity to come to the wonderful, wonderful YEA Camp. Please, if you can donate, share a page. or even create one that would mean the world! To learn more about my project, click here.

Support YEA Camp

To support Mia and the other members of the YEA Camp community, click here. You can read more about her project and others or even create your own page. 

If you are able, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to YEA Camp this year. Your dollar will go three times as far thanks to our generous matching donors.

Interested in joining us at camp next year? We recently announced the dates for YEA Camp 2020 and are currently running an Early Bird special. Register by the end of the year to receive $250 off your registration. Do you know someone who would be great for camp? Nominate them here!

• Youth Camp: in Ventura, California (July 5 – 12) and Charlton, Massachusetts (August 1 – 8)
• Adult Camp: in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey (July 18 – 24)

The post YEA Campers Triple Impact through Volunteer-a-Thon appeared first on YEA Camp.

I began September’s Climate Strike at a church packed with teenagers and their chaperones, and wondered if I was the only non-religious person there. St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity, a quick walk from Foley Square, opened their space, gave free breakfast and paint and cardboard to all of us. I met up with a dear friend and some teens she was chaperoning from her church. She was busy fulfilling her role as a family minister, referring to everyone present as “Friend.” I was busy making small talk with some folks in collars, wondering if they could sense my unbelonging. 

Youth rally at the 2019 Climate Strike in New York City

I have always been fearful that in religious spaces people are able to immediately pick up on my lack of faith, a non-believer in their midst. Yet as I carried this grain of insecurity with me, I had to stop and consider that a protest and a service aim to achieve the same goals. A protest unifies, as any service aims to do. A protest reminds us what we have to fight for, and why it matters. The environment that can get our otherwise isolated selves to wish peace on our neighbors is the same one that has us teaching and learning new chants and showing the 6 year-olds how to use a megaphone. A protest grounds us, pushes us to construct the world we want to be part of.

As I reflect on that day, I can not help but realize that the climate strike restored my commitment to compassion in the face of uncertainty.

And that feels a lot like faith to me. I’ve never been to a church service that I connected with, that is, until I attended the climate strike. Beginning my day at church set the tone but since that day I have been thinking a lot about the holy nature of direct action.

Thousands of people marching for their future in New York City

I do not mean to assign strict religious meaning or symbolism to the dedicated organizing of these youth. I mean only to say that they reoriented my own thinking, and helped me to remember that the affiliation or community we may lack within a particular faith can be found in movement organizing, and the unifying force of a cause worth fighting for. 

What I found particularly impactful is that the youth do not hesitate to be honest.

While the truth of the climate crisis is without a doubt overwhelming, I’ve found that adults respond to it by thinking within our systems, retreating it always seems, to market-based solutions. Constrained by what is in front of us, what we understand, sometimes it can feel like adults lack the imagination to tackle a problem so large. But these teenagers, they believe in what they do not yet see. They believe in the possibility of a new, different, and just world.

Youth, whether because of their lack of formal status within larger systems, or because of the sheer uncertainty of their futures, give us all the permission to think outside of the system. Whereas all too many adults look to the market to correct what the market has bore, the children are thinking differently. Their ears are to the ground, and the sky, to the forest floor and the sidewalk, they are listening to the environment, not the invisible hand. Their minds are not constrained to the market, and to face this problem, our minds must not be constrained to the market either.

We should watch closely as the children believe in a world system they can not yet see, and take this as a lesson in applied faith. 

Greta Thunberg, speaking at Battery Park said, “This is the biggest climate strike in the history of the world.”

As an activist, I have often been intimidated away from action by my own perceived lack of knowledge. When I let fear control my actions, I never end up acting, I stay quiet and convinced I do not belong. I would bet most of us feel this way from time to time. Yet, on that Friday, only a year since Greta Thunberg began striking, alone, outside of the Swedish Parliament, between 6 and 7 million people worldwide joined her. We alone are fearful, but together we are certain. What the youth reminded me was that expertise is not a substitute for emotion. Facts do not always convince us the way that fear does.

The voices of the youth are clear — they do not get a future if we do not change our world.

NYC public school students (1.1 million of them) were excused from classes on Friday to participate in the Climate Strike.

And this month, I was honored to stand amongst them, when chanting carried the weight of hymnal, and we were all invited to imagine a different future. 

No one here had to be a scientist to become a leader. We only had to understand that the climate crisis will unify us, whether it be as quiet victims or as rising activists. It is not the responsibility of the youth to lead us, or present us with solutions. But we may all be better off by observing their abandon, the force of their determination, their willingness to show up, as experts or not. And we will all be better off by realizing that the community we seek may be right in front of us, on the picket line, or the school strike. That the collective imagining of a just world is a worthy, and holy project.

The children and teenagers at the climate strike push us to think outside of our worlds, breaking down the walls of an economic system that works for so few. The children and teenagers of the climate strike push us to turn to our neighbor, and wish for peace in the form of a call to action. 

About the Activist:

Maggie Berke is a postpartum doula invested in the fight for comprehensive reproductive justice. She has a background in LGBT+ advocacy and education, and lives in Brooklyn. In her free time, she is writing poetry or participating in theatre projects. You can find her @goldenhourpostpartum and @maybemaggiewill on Instagram. 

Maggie attended YEA Camp for Adults in Summer 2019. We are so grateful she joined us.

Maggie is one of many former campers and staff members to partake in the 2019 Climate Strike. Check out this recent blog post about other YEA Camp Alumni who lead Climate Strikes in their communities. We are so proud of every camp member who takes what they learn at camp and uses it to make a bigger impact in whatever way makes sense for them.

If you’d like to learn more about how to advocate for environmental justice and other causes you care about, join us at YEA Camp for teens or YEA Camp for Adults. We will be announcing our 2020 summer dates soon. Looking to add to your activist tool belt in the meantime? Click here to download our free ebook, The Beginner’s Guide to Changing the World!

The post Reflections from the New York City Climate Strike appeared first on YEA Camp.

YEA Camp for Adults will be amazing! Join us!

As we prepare for our second year of YEA Camp for Adults, we wanted to share more about its purpose, ways it’s similar but also different from a typical leadership or activism conference or training or retreat, and how it might be the most fun you’ve ever had focusing on self-care, personal growth, and changing the world.

We are living in a time when children are being separated from their families at the border, when those in power are ignoring scientists’ warnings about climate catastrophe, and the richest 26 people in the world currently own the same wealth as the poorer half of the entire global population. These are just a few of the most devastating injustices we are facing.

It’s enough to make a big-hearted person feel totally demoralized, check out, or give up.

But, thankfully, many people who have never been activists before are getting involved and inspired to bring about change.

Seeing this has been incredible! People are attending their first marches and getting involved in politics for the first time. They’re donating money, having uncomfortable conversations to challenge outdated thinking, and on and on.

For the past 10 years, YEA Camp has been training teens to make a bigger difference on the social justice causes they care most about, and we recognize that folks 18 and up have some of the same needs as teens do to get involved at higher levels than ever before.

That’s why we created YEA Camp for Adults.

Check out our new video about YEA Camp for Adults!

Changing the world is hard! Not only does it take knowledge about issues and skills to make an impact, it takes self-confidence to get out of our comfort zone, and community to learn from and work with.

So many people got their start as changemakers by mostly stumbling along without a plan or rationale. It’s often lonely and time-consuming to try things out without much in the way of relevant knowledge, skills, mentorship, or even open conversations with experienced activists to help navigate a path that is inherently entrepreneurial and against the status quo.

Left to our own devices, it’s too easy to just like posts on social media, go to a march every few months, and complain about all of the world’s problems without doing much of anything about them.

That’s where we try to intervene and make a real difference. We leverage the experience of our staff to help kickstart or up-level your activism.

Social Justice Activism and Leadership Training for Aspiring Activists

At YEA Camp, we curate the most foundational concepts and skills that we want to make sure every changemaker has in their toolkit. Things like:

• Fundamental strategies for understanding and chipping away at racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression
• Intersectionality and how different social justice issues relate to one another
• Evaluating our habits and choices to see how our daily actions and purchases can be some of the simplest ways we can make a difference
• Going deeper and examining our limiting beliefs and fears to help us find our voice and tap into our power
• Tapping into our resilience when we feel overwhelmed and demoralized by the state of the world
• Communication skills to help us have more effective interactions with people who we disagree with, especially those in positions of power — and to know when to avoid these interactions
• Skills to inspire others to get involved, to use social media or grassroots outreach effectively, to raise money for your cause, or to launch a socially responsible business or venture
• Interactive activities tailored to different learning styles and to help you apply everything you learn
• Tapping into our creativity and using the existing skills we each have to find our niche and make a difference in a way that is most appropriate for each of us
• Developing strategies to assess the best use of our time, and to make a plan that inspires us

Why A Summer Camp for Activists?

So many reasons! Let’s focus on three.

Join us at YEA Camp for Adults at Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, just outside of New York City.

1. Summer camp brings together the elements of fun, inspiration, and relaxation. As activist-minded people, we can become focused on all the problems in the world. In comparison to so many injustices, it could feel impossible or selfish to enjoy our lives. We hope you’ll see that taking time to be out in nature, be silly, and enjoy life is a long-term investment in your activism. It can help us replenish our energy and inspiration so that we can think clearly and truly be of service to others.

2. Camp inherently challenges us to get out of our comfort zones.

   From meeting new people, to being open to the unknown, to the most basic adjustments to new food and a bed that’s not your own. But as we tap into our courage in a safe environment, we can build a muscle that actually expands the size of our comfort zone. Things that made us nervous before become not so scary, and that is hugely helpful for any activist. With an activist mindset, we see infinite opportunities to take action beyond what we’ve done before, where we’re not sure what to expect, or where we may be opening ourselves up for criticism or perceived failure. We can all benefit by getting more comfortable getting out of our comfort zones.

3. Camp might be the best place in the world to reinvent yourself.

   Most of us spend the majority of our time with the same people.  Our coworkers, family, friends, neighbors, and even ourselves know us to be a certain way. We are a product of our past ways of being and seeing ourselves. But what if we want to re-evaluate who we are or how we want to approach life? What if we want to pursue new passions or set new goals? That can be hard to just wake up and do one day over breakfast or at work.

Being at camp is transformational.

You get to show up as whoever you want to try out being. If you’re naturally shy, what if you try being outgoing? In a welcoming environment where nobody knows you, we won’t even know you’re just trying that out!

This is an opportunity to brainstorm a new way to get involved in your community or a more inspired career. We will have no judgments –just offer support and thoughtful input if you ask for it.

There are conferences and trainings to learn about specific problems in the world or to build specific skills. But they’re usually boring or stuffy, in a sterile hotel conference room all day packed with people you won’t get to know, and with someone droning on to explain a PowerPoint you could have read at home.

But what if you could learn the basics of what you need to know to make a bigger difference while also having one of the most fun weeks of your life, building strong bonds with like-minded supportive people, and spending time in nature rejuvenating yourself so that you feel inspired rather than drained?

That’s YEA Camp!

Details, Please?!

YEA Camp for Adults is a leadership training and activist retreat all held on the grounds of an animal sanctuary!

YEA Camp for Adults is held at the incredible Woodstock Farm Sanctuary — a home for rescued farmed animals who will be some of our hosts and friends as we enjoy our own sanctuary during our time together. We chose June 30-July 6, the week of July 4th, so it will be easier to get away.

We only have 50 beds, so this will be an intimate setting. Everyone will get to know everyone and nobody can fall through the cracks. The accommodations are modern, and we will have a personal vegan chef cooking for us! We also promise you will become friends with creatures with 2 legs, 4 legs, and even wings!

We also offer a sliding scale and financial aid to make it easier for people to be able to come.

If you’re passionate about making a bigger difference in the world, YEA Camp was created with you in mind.

Summer is fast approaching! We hope you will take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity to take your change-making to new heights!

Check out our event page here. And find out more or register to join us this summer by visiting our website here.

The post YEA Camp for Adults: A Leadership Training Retreat for Aspiring Social Justice Activists appeared first on YEA Camp.

Sorry, we don’t mean to give away all the spoilers! We were happy she fit this interview with YEA Camp into her busy schedule and are glad to let her tell you more.

YEA Camp: Tell us about the activism you’ve been doing.

Lauren: I’ve volunteered with two organizations for several years now – Animal Advocates (an animal shelter where my family and I take care of cats) and Global Links, which packs and sends donated medical supplies to hospitals that can’t afford to buy their own, or to places that have recently gone through a natural disaster. For instance, right now, we’re sending a lot of stuff to Puerto Rico.

Lauren tabling with her robotics club

In addition, I’ve written several articles and blog posts about activism, animal rights, and veganism for different websites and organizations.

I’m also on an all-girls high school robotics team (The Girls of Steel). Our mission is to empower women and girls in the pursuit of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) by exemplifying female success in robotics. STEM fields are still very male-dominated – our mission is to change people’s attitudes about women in STEM and helping young girls know they can be successful in a STEM career.

How did you get involved with activism and what you’re currently working on?

My parents were vegan and doing animal rights activism before I was born, and I’ve been explaining veganism to people since forever, so I guess you could say I was born an activist! However, I started volunteering when I was about 11, and I started writing and doing other forms of activism after attending my first session of YEA Camp in 2015.

Right now I’m working on a few things, along with writing, volunteer work and Girls Of Steel. I’m on Farm Sanctuary’s Youth Advisory Board, giving input on pamphlets etc. they want to create for younger activists, as well as kids that want to learn about veganism.

In addition, I’ve done a few art-activism things. I just finished performances of a play called “You Belong to Me” with a local theater company. This play aims to raise awareness about, and prevent, teen dating violence, and it’s an incredibly powerful piece that has been performed in schools all around the Pittsburgh area. I want to be an actor when I grow up, so this was a great way for me to combine acting and activism!

I’m also a YEA Camp Intern!

Lauren at a farm animal sanctuary with rescued turkeys

What challenges have you faced as an activist and how have you dealt with them?

Time management has always been a bit of a problem for me, but I’ve discovered it helps me be the most effective if I have one specific goal (maybe it’s to “Write one article before Sunday”) and then I budget my time over the week to make sure I get it done; vs having an open-ended goal (“Write as many articles as you can this week”).

What advice do you have for new activists just getting involved?

Go for it! Even if you don’t think you’ll be good at it. Even if you can only do something you consider small or unimportant. You’ll get better (and gain confidence) with practice and every single action matters and will make a difference, no matter the size or scope.

How did YEA Camp help you in your activism, if it did?

YEA Camp helped me in tons of ways! I gained more knowledge (about many things, but specifically about how to answer tricky questions), as well as a lot more confidence in myself and my abilities as an activist. YEA Camp also connected me to a ton of organizations and people that I have worked with or could work with in the future. It’s also helped me a lot to just know that there are amazing people out there who care as passionately about issues as I do.

What activist goals do you have in the future?

Gain more confidence. Reach more people. Take part in more activism.

Have you been involved with any organizations or used any as resources for your activism?

Yes! YEA Camp (obviously), Animal Advocates, Global Links, Farm Sanctuary, and Girls of Steel Robotics are the main groups with which I have worked that have helped me to grow in my activism.

Do you care about making a difference just like Lauren does? Want help getting more involved? Come to YEA Camp this summer!

Lauren Scheller-Wolf is a 17-year-old activist for many causes, though her focus is on animal rights. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended YEA Camp New York in 2015 and 2016.

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