Day Kamp

A community mentoring and advocacy initiative for young boys in the urban centers of Cleveland. This inclusive faith based initiative has been crafted for the purpose of being a catalyst for the formation of the new community specifically focused on supporting the underserved and underrespresented minorities in greater Cleveland region. The program functions as ground swell of support for youth (Prince Council) and fellowship for fathers and men of all ages.(Kings Court).

Goal of this program is to take active approach of fathering our communities and standing in the gap for those families who are without and providing support to those who are with. This program takes shape in variety of ways with monthly meetings ( Kings Court and Day Camps) as well as weekly interactions between men and youth.

No program can be successful without the full support of the family. So then our desire at Day Kamp is to provide basic support through mentoring and adovcavy is concert with the family.

The Process

Youth are invited to a Day Kamp event that occurs once a month. The Day Kamp will include, snack, activities and presentation. At this monthly event youth will be engaged by men and when youth feels comfortable they will select a mentor at which point the pupil becomes a prince and his mentor the King. The expectation of King is to build a relationship with the youth that prepares them in every facet of their lives primarily helping with goal setting and character building through follow up weekly contacts based on the presentation(s) they receive at Day Kamp. The prince will continue his time with King until he reaches a level of King , usually 18 years of age and has gone through a Rites of Passage (In Development).

The levels are young prince, prince, young king, king. The idea behind the levels is that by the time the young man reaches king has hold on who he is , his value in the world and how he will impact his community. In support of the men who support these pupils we hold a monthly meeting called Kings Court primary focus is provide support for the men active in this program as well as just men who are deal with the pressure of what it means to be a man. Our princes are welcome to attend but this not for them it for the men. When day camp occurs that is for the youth .... men will facilitate but it is for the princes.

The majority of the activities will be free and or relatively inexpensive. Any financial obligations will be forwarded to the family of the youth well a head of time so they have time to pay the cost.  Within the context of this program there is something called the Kings Duty and the Princes Duty. This refers to sacrifices and responsibilities that come with their position. We will not require Kings to do any thing but we will appeal to the King to step in financially if there is something that family can not pay for. Within the context of Princes Duty his estate has do with how he handle his home and responsibilities which may mean these young men may be asked to work to pay for the things they want, either way the whole of process is meant to be a training ground for how they will be expected to rule.

The areas associated with Day Kamps shall be referred to as domains so as to emphasis how we are to treat the space we occupy.

The Service Philosophy.

Honor. Love and Fear - I Peter 2:15 ( Honor All Men. Love the Brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King.)

This is a faith based framework for how to function in society as well as how we will correct, instruct and prosper our pupils. We are not looking to convert young men to the Christian faith but we are intent of using what we know works where ever there is true we will draw. You get the greatest benefit from any discipline if you are disciple of that discipline. Our goal is to focus on those things that have real impact on daily life principles like integrity, compassion, passion, purpose and rapport. We will expand on context of the lives of the pupils by taking a looking into history, civil engagement and academic and social education.

Scaling Format.

This program has three tiers for all intents and purpose. The counselate the deciding body of people youth and or men who help determine program content, venue and appropriate activities. The Kings the drivers of the program and the princes/family the recipients of the program. The vision of this program is intended to touch all of greater Cleveland region but involvement and commitment will dictate how much of that we can touch. So then scaling is appropriate our ideal is one man for every youth. Realistically there maybe more youth then men. Ideally our program is even age wise across the board with youth and men from ever age apart. Realistically there will likely be much more youth who are much younger and less and less for the older.

In order to balance this we will employ this methodology " Start where you are , use what you have and do the best you can."

Intake/Continuum/Repeat.

We do registration for the Day Kamp where we will collect information from participants - Online form.

We will used the information from event as point of contact and advertisement for next camp.

We recuse the same system to grow the tiers.

Fees?

I am thinking 25$ registration. include t shirt, food. Using RSVP system so that we can plan accordingly.

Loose Ends

In all the program and function in it full cycle ( Day Kamp, Points of Contact, Day Kamp) monthly. As stated before it may only be effective quarterly depending on the domain and involvement the point is that if we are serious about saving our communities we have to save our men and if we really want to save our generation we save our youth as we save our men.