Ramah Service Corps Fellows Training, January 2015

It was our absolute pleasure to gather Ramah Service Corps Fellows together last week at Ramah California. During our four days, we enjoyed getting to know one another, studying together, program
sharing, and reflecting on the past few months of work. Emphasis was placed on the most effective ways of encouraging more families to send their kids to Ramah. “I really appreciated the chance to sit down and just talk with some of the other Fellows,” said Hannah Glickman of Ramah New England. “I know that they are doing work similar to mine, but getting to actually spend time together and share what we’re doing brings the experience to a much more tangible level.

Blog/Reflections, Staff Leadership TrainingNRC WebmasterJanuary 12, 2015National Ramah

Dream Big, Don’t Settle: The Magic of the Ramah Service Corps

Amy Skopp Cooper knows young adults have magic. “They’re cool. They have charisma,” she gushes. “They’re passionate, and kids respond to them.”

She’s not just talking about any young adults; in this case, Skopp Cooper’s talking about the special group of fellows in the Ramah Service Corp s (RSC). “They’re future rabbis, or Jewish educators, or maybe they’re on their way to medical school,” she says. “These are well-rounded young people. They are so grateful for what they’ve gotten from their own Ramah experiences, they want to give back.”

Spanning Three Continents: Bringing Together Our Future Leaders

Over the past few weeks, National Ramah has sponsored several leadership training programs designed to educate, nurture, and cultivate young Ramah leaders. It has been an extraordinary few weeks for more than 150 Ramah staff members and those of us who have had the opportunity to work with them.

Coming Together As One

When you’re a counselor working with campers who have disabilities, you’re always on the lookout for new ways and activities to help engage the campers under your charge. There is no better way to pick up these new tips and tricks than to spend time exchanging information and experiences with other counselors who work with the same population. This is precisely what I did during the last week of May at the National Ramah Spring Leadership Training Conference at Ramah Darom in Clayton, Georgia. I spent the week collaborating with and learning from counselors from other camps all over the country who also work with campers with disabilities.

On Collaboration, Inclusion, and Community

Staff Leadership Training, Tikvah/Special Needs, Blog/ReflectionsNRC WebmasterJune 17, 2014Tikvah, Rockies

Collaboration Is the Key: URJ and Ramah Working Together to Help Campers with Disabilities

For the past five summers, I have had the honor of working for the Mitzvah Corps program at URJ Kutz Camp. Mitzvah Corps is a special needs camping program for teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The program’s mission is to honor the unique characteristics of every camper and provide access to Jewish camping by creating individualized accommodations and modifications that allow every camper to succeed. So when my camp and I heard that National Ramah invited the URJ Camps to their Spring Leadership Training Conference training at Ramah Darom, we saw it as a great opportunity to collaborate with a different camp movement whose mission closely aligned with our own.

Singing Together at Hava Nashira 2014

A very wise (and very fictional) old wizard named Dumbledore once said that music is “a magic beyond” anything he could ever hope to accomplish with a wand and an incantation. This magic will exist everyday this summer at Jewish camps across North America and it will be facilitated by staff members armed with guitars and a passion for music.

Blog/Reflections, Staff Leadership TrainingNRC WebmasterJune 12, 2014Rockies, Music

Teaching self-care to counselors who work with campers with disabilities

I distinctly remember the day at camp when I sat with one of my campers outside the chadar ochel while she struggled to make it from the meal to the next activity. Something about going from the meal to the tent gave her anxiety. The way she showed it, however, was through bouts of screaming, crying, and some not-so-kind words. We sat for what felt like centuries in the same spot. I tried everything to cajole her from her perch, but nothing I tried worked. I felt increasingly defeated as the minutes ticked by without any resolution. My supervisor ended up coming around the corner and said, “Jenna, tap out.” To “tap out” means to take a break or let someone else tackle the problem. This was a crucial moment in my development as a counselor in Tikvah [one of the Ramah programs for campers with disabilities]. It was when I started to understand the role that self-care plays in my job as a counselor to children with special needs.

New Ways to Make Kids Excited About Camp

What if you took a camp counselor – t-shirt and all – and dropped her in a synagogue? Instead of telling her to leave all that “campy stuff” at the door, invite her to bring it all in with her. Don’t stick her in a classroom on a Sunday morning to talk about camp for an hour, instead have her bring that “camp magic” year round to every activity and every kid in the building. Add a splash of “pied-piper” appeal and camp recruitment responsibilities and you have a Service Corps Fellow in action.