Creating Your Vision

What is your vision for the campus and/or community?

I envision a community in which social justice work and rhetoric is fully integrated into our every day lives, and all the programming that we do so that the kids we work with will be more conscious of social justice issues, and power dynamics when they leave camp at the end of the summer.

Assessing Your Campus and Community

What campus/community problem does your blueprint address? What structures, practices and policies institutionalize the problem?

My Blueprint attempts to increase the sustainability and continuity of social justice programming through the arts at the summer camp I work at during the summer. The problem is that the campers know a lot about social issues, but they don't incorporate that knowledge into their every day lives. We have done programming to try to correct this, but it is usually just an hour and a half one night out of the summer. On top of that, because it is a summer camp, there is very little continuity from summer to summer in terms of staff. By creating a binder with information on how this programming could be run, it will make it easier to continue this work regardless of who is on staff. My blueprint will provide an accessible resource that will allow social justice programming to be incorporated into our every day activities.

What communities will you work with?

• Local community

Setting Goals and Deliverables

• Goal 1: To help promote continuity of social justice programming
• Hold discussion with staff I supervise about why Farm & Wilderness is committed to social justice programming to emphasize that it should be a part of our program each day.
• Brainstorm with staff ideas of how to make social justice activities into fun games, so the kids feel like they are at summer camp and not at school.
• Goal 2: Providing sustainable resources for staff to lead effective activities.
• Creating a binder!
• Including sections in the binder about how to effectively lead activities and facilitate discussions.
• Including sections in the binder about where to go and who to go to for support.
• Leaving time for staff to ask questions, and for those questions to be adequately addressed during staff training.
• Goal 3: Helping to raise social consciousness of campers and staff.
• Having a question box (for questions relating to social justice), and holding a forum twice a session to answer and discuss those questions.
• Discussing with staff how to take advantage of "teachable moments." For example, we sing a lot of songs that are related to the Civil Rights Movement. We should pause after the song and take a moment to allow someone (camper or staff) to explain what the song is about and why it's important.

What is your primary approach? Leadership and Capacity Building

Why did you choose this approach?

My biggest goal with this blueprint is to create a more sustainable curriculum, and this seems like the best way to do that.

What will your tactics and activities be?

I will be creating a binder and presenting it to Nicki, my director and whoever she hires as the Creative Arts Head for next summer. This way I can advocate for these activities to continue each summer, regardless of staff. The binder will provide a how-to guide on leading Creative Arts activities that have an activist twist.

Connecting Back to Vision

How does your strategy contribute to your vision for your campus and/or your community?

By providing a binder, and more training for Creative Arts staff social justice issues can be more effectively incorporated into our every day programming.

Resources and skills you will need

What skills do you need for this approach?

I think I will need help in effectively communicating how an activity can be lead through a binder. I know the basic format, but I might just need someone to read it over and make sure it is clear.