Multicultural Arts Camp: was held June 6th through June 17th at Desiderata Alternative Program in Phoenix. More campers than ever before participated in MAC Camp this year. With 76 youth attending each week, there were a grand total of 152 campers ages 9-17 years old. In each session, the children were divided into 5 groups that were led by a counselor and several volunteers. These groups rotated through 5 artist-led workshops, which focused on multicultural and multidisciplinary arts. Each group also had time each day for team-building activities such as group games, trust exercises and the famous “applause box” where young people can place positive comments about one another that are read aloud at the end of each day. 

One of the special things about MAC Camp is that every child can find something that they connect with. The workshops and artists are intentionally selected so that campers can experience, not only arts from various countries but also various mediums of arts like dance, music, visual arts and creative writing. This year we had a ”dream team” of artists with Shari Keith leading a Junk Art class; Misha Pemberton teaching a social dance workshop; Christa Iceforest leading batik and printmaking in World Arts; Frank Thompson facilitating World Drumming; and Myrlin Hepworth inspiring youth through spoken word poetry. Our artists this year were gifted, not only at teaching their art form, but also at developing a safe, non-judgmental environment where the youth could be creative and share their stories. Each camper left feeling a little bit better about themselves and knowing that there really are no mistakes in art!

Also contributing to that safe environment, was the presence of so many caring adult volunteers. This year we were fortunate enough to have 55 remarkable individuals supporting, encouraging and caring for the campers. These volunteers truly understand what it means to be a “treasure hunter” and seek out the gifts that each child has. With their help every child at camp learned to salsa dance, played a drum with pride and power, wrote and read poetry about what pain means to them, and performed in a final showcase to 100 family and friends.

Impact
The overarching theme of this year’s camp was “success.” Staff, volunteers and artists worked very intentionally to make each youth feel successful at camp. For some young people, success was creating a beautiful batik painting. For others, it was gathering enough courage to dance with a partner, and for others, it was simply showing up to camp each day and to be in a positive environment. However it manifested, each success was celebrated by adult volunteers and other campers. As a result, youth felt overwhelmingly like they had talent, could do anything they put their mind to, and could be themselves.

MAC Camp gives kids a special place to belong. It is safe to say that many of these youth feel like outcasts from their family, from their schoolmates, and from their community. At camp, they are surrounded by young people who are just like them, and suddenly it doesn’t matter that they are a “group home kid” or that they don’t have the right clothes. This safety allows them to share pieces of themselves that they might otherwise keep hidden. In Spoken Word Poetry this year, youth wrote poems about their past, present and future. They read these oftentimes heart wrenching poems in front of their entire group, and felt understood, listened to, and supported in their bravery.
One young person wrote:
I am from a city of trash filled streets.
I used to be a little kid letting my imagination soar as I slept.
I am a survivor of drive by shootings.
I am the promise to never be what my parents were liars, stealers, and law breakers.
I am the lonely kid that walks the streets at night.
I hope to be the shining bit of sun gleaming from out of the clouds.
I used to be a good quiet kid that had good grades in school.
I will always be someone who will always do my best to be good.
I hope to be the successful kid from the ghetto that makes a great life.

These kids have incredible stories and come from unfathomable places, and they are all hoping to make a better life for themselves. MAC Camp helps them reach these goals by making them feel important, heard, and successful. We hope that the youth that came to camp this summer will take the confidence they found while being supported by caring adults, feeling comfortable in their surroundings and begin given the opportunity to succeed at new things, and carry that with them through the year.

At MAC camp each year we invite a few teens from Session 1 to serve as volunteers for Session 2 of camp. This year we picked 4 special kids to stay and help out. Each of these young people were such great additions to our volunteer team and felt so honored to have been chosen. It is so special to watch a young person who is a good and solid camper Week #1, become a proud leader Week #2.

One young man who was chosen to volunteer has come to MAC Camp in 2010. At that time he was in a very dark place. He was cutting himself regularly, couldn’t look you in the eye, and couldn’t stay in a classroom long enough to complete a project or fully participate in the workshops. He came back this year and seemed transformed. He walked with a confident posture, participated in every activity, asked to help out whenever he could. He came back as a volunteer with the younger kids and was a true role model. At one point during the week he felt like he was not in a good mental space and asked if he could go home because “I want my whole mind to be present for the kids I’m helping. Otherwise it’s not fair to them.” What a huge step for this young man to recognize and be aware of his thoughts and feelings and their effect on the kids he was working with. At the end of the week he received the “Marathon Man” award for coming so very far.

Evaluation
At the end of camp adults and youth complete evaluation forms recording their favorite workshops and moments at camp. A few of these responses are included below.

From written evaluations:

100% of youth expressed interest in returning to camp
99% of youth reported feeling safe at camp
97% of youth reported enjoying meeting other people

Youth Comments
What did you lean about yourself?
• That I’ve been hiding and I am a good person
• I shouldn’t be afraid to express myself publicly
• I learned I have to be brave to speak up in from of others and there are no mistakes.
• No matter what anybody says, you’re still you
• I can be myself at MAC Camp
• That I’m a good leader

What would you tell other people about MAC Camp?
• It is a great way to release stress and it’s fun – you should go to it next year.
• You can release stress
• Even though I thought it was going to be boring it wasn’t
• You should join this amazing camp. If you do you get to get out of the house, have a break from your parents, learn something, have fun, meet new people and you might find some other people just like you that have something in common!
• It gets you out of your comfort zone.

Adults Comments
What are some of your most memorable experience from MAC Camp:
• Hearing stories of where the kids come from and seeing them slowly open up throughout the week
• Discovering the youth’s hidden talents!
• Hearing one young person say he didn’t want to perform in the showcase. After he did he said to me “thanks- I couldn’t have done it without you!”
• We played a game at the end of the week where you whisper positive things in each other’s ears. One girl said to me, “I would do anything to be here at camp with you again!”