Camp Ten Trees
Camp Ten Trees creates a loving and engaging youth camp environment for LGBT communities and their allies. This mission is strengthened by the Camp Ten Trees values of Courage, Health, Inclusion, Play, Stewardship, Family, Acceptance, and Leadership. Through the summer camp sessions, and complementary year-round programming, campers are empowered to embrace these values as they develop personal assets and come together to form a community that is truly their own.
Description:
Camp Ten Trees is a volunteer-driven, Seattle-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization offering residential summer camp sessions in Washington state. Camp Ten Trees currently features one week for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and allied youth (LGBTQA) and one week for children and youth of LBGTQ and non-traditional families.
Children and youth of LGBTQ communities and families need a forum in which to discuss the unique challenges they face. Camp Ten Trees provides a place for young people to connect with others facing homophobia, transphobia, and/or isolation from their communities, and to openly discuss these challenges. Within that safe environment, Camp Ten Trees welcomes campers' whole selves, offering allyship and support around the diversity of issues, experiences, and identities affecting their lives as young people, in addition to those related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Camp Ten Trees provides a nurturing environment, complete with traditional camp activities, that promotes communication, learning, and sharing by youth who may otherwise experience feelings of isolation and being silenced. Participants leave camp with feelings of empowerment instead of isolation, with increased abilities to access support, sustain healthy connections, and value themselves. These youth re-enter the world at large fortified by an increase in personal assets and a supportive community.
History:
Camp Ten Trees was founded in 2000 and offered its first summer camp in August of 2001, serving 34 campers. In recent summers, the organization has served nearly 200 campers and continues to grow year after year. Camp Ten Trees was one of the very first of its kind in the world and is still the only such program in the Pacific Northwest.
Camp Ten Trees is growing and developing the infrastructure necessary for sustainability - summer camp sessions and more for years to come! Recently, the organization received its own 501(c)3 status and is now offering additional year-round programming to introduce new folks to the summer camp program as well as to maintain connections and support among the Camp Ten Trees community.
Throughout its history, Camp Ten Trees has been supported and sustained by a host of skilled and dedicated volunteers whose fund raising, program development, and strategic planning efforts continue to result in a thriving and relevant organization that positively impacts the lives of children, youth, families, and communities.
Camp Ten Trees is growing strong as it enters 2010 - its tenth year of service to LGBTQA youth and children/youth of LGBT families!
Contact person: Airen Lydick, Program Director, (phone), (email)
Main office number:
(206) 288-9568
Address:
 |
1122 E Pike ST, #1488Seattle, WA 98122 (See a map) |
Web Site: http://www.camptentrees.org
Miscellaneous Information
| Liability |
|
No
|
| Does your organization welcome court-ordered community service volunteers? |
|
Yes
|
| Does your organization have volunteer positions for youth 12-18? |
|
Yes
|
| Last updated on October 22, 2009 |
