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Category: Family and Youth

Building Ramps… Not Stairs

Posted on by Lauren Panozzo

If you told me that when I graduated with a degree in social work, that I would be working in the camp field, specifically at an inclusive camp, I would never have believed you.

Hi! My name is Lauren, and I work as Camp Achva’s Inclusion and Belonging Coordinator. My role has two interrelated sides – firstly, by implementing supports for the mental, emotional, social and spiritual health of every camper, staff member, and family that is a part of the Camp Achva community, and secondly, by intentionally creating a safe environment for everyone to be their most authentic self.

I bring to this work a personal perspective on sticking out, the challenges of finding spaces I belong in, and contributing to causes bigger than myself, because, like so many in our community, I am neurodiverse.

Summer camp was my place to just be…me. To show up, and be welcomed fully for who I am, not what I could or could not do. It was a space for me to move away from a diagnosis and be seen for more than my ability level.

I am so grateful that I am in a role where I get to actively help create that space for another generation of campers & staff. It is through working hand in hand with the families and individuals that I, and the Camp Achva team, serve together to create individual success plans – at Camp Achva we believe in people over programming and connection before content. We live that ideal by adjusting our entire program for the one, to better the whole – which is inspired by a training opportunity our team was a part of that talked about their belief in building a ramp instead of stairs. Everyone can use a ramp, whereas only some can use the stairs. There has been a lot of exciting work from the Camp Achva team as we prepare for our best summer yet!

In a practical example of this work, our team has been discussing the length of our activities and how time affects learning outcomes and skill development. Our team has been discussing whether we should move from 30-minute activities to 35- or 40-minute activities. We are looking to adequately balance the need for an activity time length that holds camper and staff’s attention for duration and the number of activities everyone experiences in a day, with giving enough time to build skills and explicitly engage in conversations about what campers are learning. We see benefits of both and are continuing to weigh the pros and cons of each side.

We are working to improve our lunch programming as well – this is a time our campers and staff have given us feedback about, and so we are examining how to make lunch more like a ramp than the stairs it currently feels like to many. Lunch can be overwhelming! To some of our community, lunch feels loud, unstructured, and socially uncomfortable. To others, they feel perfectly in place, with lunch feeling structured and comforting. Our team is working on providing a structure that meets everyone’s needs with ideas from – camp trivia to weather reports, conversation starters to jokes, riddles, and word puzzles.

I am excited to continue these discussions and many others I get to be a part of through my work as the Inclusion & Belonging Coordinator of Camp Achva. I am so grateful for the work that I do. In this past year working with Camp Achva and for the Pozez JCC, I have learned that inclusion is not a choice, it is a lifestyle. I am working to make all the spaces that I am a part of inclusive.

While written in a different context, a quote that I have come to appreciate, rely on, and sums up my inclusion and belonging work is from Ijeoma Oluo: “every time you go through something, and it’s easy for you, look around and say ‘Who is this not easy for? And what can I do to dismantle that system?’”

Getting to know the ECLC Fairfax’s Atelier

Posted on by Sarah Vejvoda

Aligning with the principles of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, the Pozez JCC Early Childhood Learning Center established an Atelier in 2010. Over the years the ECLC’s atelier has become an integral part of the children’s learning experiences at school, as an active space where curiosity is sparked and creativity flourishes.

But what is an Atelier in an early childhood context?

Atelier is a French word defined as a workshop or studio. For the young children that attend the ECLC, the Atelier is a space, a laboratory of sorts, where they can express themselves authentically, question, wonder, and discover new knowledge through aesthetic experiences.

Children live in a world of relationships, and use multiple senses, such as touching, smelling, tasting, and listening, to investigate and process connections between themselves and the world around them. This interconnectedness is not limited, but incorporates materials, provided, or discovered. In the Atelier, materials are presented in visually appealing ways, and the quality and authenticity of materials are essential in supporting the children’s thinking and learning. Children are given agency to explore these materials through poly-sensorial investigations. As children become more familiar with a material, it evolves into a ‘language’ for them to further communicate their thoughts and ideas. Intentional considerations of materials demonstrate deep respect for children’s capabilities and the importance of aesthetic experiences in learning.

In the Atelier, small groups of children visit at a time.  There are many benefits to working in a small group context, as there tends to be fewer distractions, establishing a place for children to observe, interact, listen, and learn from each other. Through small group interactions, children not only learn from their peers but also develop crucial social skills and a sense of belonging within the learning community.

This year, the intention of the atelier has been focused on mark-making. The goal is to continually offer a variety of materials to explore different impressions, scribbles, patterns, and shapes, which is simply the beginning of emergent writing. In the early stages of mark-making, utilizing different types of tools, from watercolor paints to clay, strengthens hands while children are engaged in the simple physical pleasures of making marks. When children realize that they can control their marks and share their ideas through these various forms of languages, mark making becomes a form of connection, as the traces that are left are purposeful. Each child is on their own journey, as they practice coordination and creativity through their own aesthetic lens.

A new video highlighting the happenings of the ECLC’s Atelier is being featured in the Pozez JCC lobby. As the children that attend the ECLC are the largest population that inhabit the community center daily, showcasing them and the work that they do shares to the children that they are valued, seen, and are contributing members of the community. Please enjoy!

ECLC Atelier Video

Let’s Say a Shehecheyanu!

Posted on by Faith Plavchan

As we start the 2024 secular New Year, I am left reflecting about our start of our school year in September. New beginnings feel like they bring so many possibilities and a great time to recite the Shehecheyanu blessing (a common Jewish prayer to celebrate special occasions) as well as to delve into the newness we feel as we start a new year Shehecheyanu Blessing.indd (1).pdf. The ECLC started the school year introducing our staff to the Shehecheyanu prayer as we thought about new possibilities a new school year holds. This feels just as true as we say hello to 2024. We will continue our school year wondering what possibilities this new year brings and where we can be grateful for what we have in our lives. We look around at our ECLC community within the larger JCC community and continue to build, grow and come together as a community.  As we begin anew with the start of 2024, the Shehecheyanu prayer brings with it a way to have gratitude for the new experiences that come with a new year.

At the ECLC, celebrating Shabbat this school year has opened new possibilities. We have been hosting once a month, in person, Shabbat’s as an ECLC community. This has brought with it extreme gratitude for our families, educators and children at the ECLC who help fill this space monthly with warmth, Shabbat songs and prayers including families helping to lead the weekly Shabbat prayers. This contributes to a greater family-school connection that we look forward to monthly.

I continue to look forward to the new possibilities that come with this new year as we continue reflecting and growing our ECLC and J community. 

The ECLC Explores Chanukah

Posted on by Faith Plavchan

Chanukah is a fun holiday that has underlying concepts of joy, miracles and light that lead to expanding learning opportunities for our young children at the ECLC. One of our educator’s favorite parts is being able to join in on the JCC’s door decorating contest. It is always exciting to see the creativity of the children and educators as they have fun decorating for Chanukah and bringing the holiday’s spirit into the building.

From the beginning of the school year, our ECLC educators have been taking part in a variety of professional development evenings that offer opportunities to learn about Jewish holidays through multi-sensorial play experiences.  Beyond providing the histories and traditions of these holidays, our intentions are to offer new ways for our educators to think about deeper meanings and consider new connections that can be translated to our young students. During our recent Chanukah professional development evening the educators spent some time in our revamped light atelier – a studio space inspired by the Festival of Lights. In this space, the educators had an opportunity to explore small manipulative lights, including some that spin or project onto the wall, a shadow stage with Hanukkah shadow puppets, and light tables to use with colorful toys and Hanukkah items such as menorahs and dreidels. It is important to provide this time for our educators to explore the beauty and possibilities of light before introducing these concepts in their classrooms. Over the past week and for the upcoming month, small groups of children along with their educators will continue to visit the light atelier to engage in curiosity-piquing, playful explorations, as they engage their senses, and celebrate the miracle of light. 

We look forward to lighting the Hanukkyiah, dressing up for our ECLC Spirit Week, and cooking and eating fried latkes and donuts.

We want to wish everyone a joyful Chanukah as we try to bring in even more light this year. 

Camp Achva’s 55th Summer

Posted on by Greg Feitel

Most mornings I have a crucial decision to make – which Camp Achva T-shirt do I wear? This is a pivotal decision. Do I wear one from the early 2000’s with the sun logo? Do I choose one from the late 2010’s with “Camp Achva” written above the logo? Or do I pick one of our current designs? The choice on its face seems simple – pick a T–shirt. However, to me, this is not a simple choice, and this is not a choice that I take lightly.

Camp Achva is in its 54th year of existence and approaching our 55th summer. Over that time, Camp Achva has grown and changed significantly – from the programming thought of and offered, to the size of our camper and staff population, to our registration systems and the sessions offered, to our logos and our name, and to our summer location.

Currently, my team and I are focused on two areas of growth – programming and inclusion.

Programming

In the past two summers, a human foosball court, a slingshot range, mystery trails (a walking version of escape rooms), and a virtual sports room featuring Nintendo Switch Sports & Just Dance have been added to the program offerings at Camp Achva. In the DMV area, we are one of the only camps that has these programs available, and we are certainly the only camp that has all of them available. We aren’t stopping there either. We believe that our program design has lots of room to grow and for our 55th summer we are homing in on teaching lifelong games by adding three different types of golf activities: foot golf, frisbee golf, & bucket golf.

In the next 3-5 years, many more activities will be added. We are already planning for what those are, where they will be, and how to make them accessible and enjoyable for all at Camp.

Inclusion to MESSH (Mental Emotional Social Spiritual Health)

The camp industry, generally, has begun to expand the thinking around disability support services, under the label of inclusion, into the idea of MESSH. At Camp Achva we are fully embracing this notion and are enjoying the learning process as we continue to grow in this area. Our first step was to have a dedicated administrative staff position to elevate our understanding of how to support the authentic self of every person who is a part of Camp Achva. This can be seen in our updated Child Profile Form, in the way that we recruit, interview, and train our staff, in the Camp Achva Pride Flag raised at Gesher and the Pozez JCC Pride logo in our email signatures, as well as, in the language we use by offering our pronouns, for using caregiver &/or guardian, and having space for participants and staff to tell us their gender on all forms.

In the next 3-5 years, we hope to be a camp that fully expresses the word inclusion. We are committed to training our professional and seasonal staff towards this end and we are committed to making Camp Achva as joyful and accessible for our campers, their families, and our broader Pozez JCC CommUNITY.

Through all this change and growth, there are Camp Achva traditions that live on and provide continuity within our framework – wearing white on Shabbat, having Ruach (a weekly showcase where each group performs), Maccabbiah (color war), field trips, changing the color of the t-shirt, & the long lines at carpool that we try to move as smoothly as possible. In recognition of our Camp Achva traditions, we look ahead to our 55th summer and the theme we have conceived to match this moment.

55 Summers of Impact

In 2024, Camp Achva is celebrating our 55th summer impacting children from all across Northern Virginia. This year’s summer theme, “Camp is More Than a Bagel,” was inspired by the Camp Achva album Jewish Is More Than a Bagel, Songs for Jewish Children, by Shirley Grossman. Through her unique perspective and awe-inspiring songwriting skills, Shirley wrote songs for Camp Achva with Broadway flair. She, along with our founders Adele Greenspon, Shirley Waxman, and Judy Frank, created a recipe for a Camp that has become more than just one thing – Camp Achva is a community, a family, a home. In honor of our founders, Shirley, our alumni, our current campers, families, staff, and the wider Pozez JCC community, we are proud to say that Camp Achva is more than a bagel!

Each Director has helped Camp Achva grow and change to fit the needs and wants of the community around it in their own way along with input from stakeholders. I have seen the growth and change firsthand as a camper, a staff member, the Assistant Director, and now as the Director. Camp Achva has always been my home, no matter the logo, the theme, the programming offered, the location, or the T-shirt color. Deciding which Camp Achva T-shirt to wear is a hard and pivotal decision for me because each one says something different. It says what programs we offered, what field trips we took, what Ruach presentations happened, who won Maccabbiah, who the Director of the time was, and what theme was explored each summer. Each T-shirt is a memory and a reminder to me that I have the most important and wonderful job I could have ever hoped for – to make Camp Achva a home for those now coming to Camp and to dream of how to make it a life-impacting experience for those coming to Camp Achva in the future, as it has been for me and so many others.

By the way, Tuesday, November 7, 2023 is International Summer Camp T-Shirt Day… I hope all who have fond camp memories, Camp Achva or otherwise, will proudly wear your favorite camp t-shirt!

Cultivating Jewish Connections in the ECLC

Posted on by Hillary Gile

On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, the ECLC was honored to host early childhood directors, mentors, and educators from the organization SOS International, who have traveled all the way from Eastern Europe to tour select Jewish and Reggio Emilia inspired schools in the United States.

SOS International’s Morim program seeks to strengthen European Jewish early childhood centers by encouraging the development of high quality, value based Jewish education that supports young children in constructing meaningful connections to Jewish culture, traditions, and identity. 

After listening to a presentation sharing the history, philosophy, and Jewish identity of the ECLC, visitors toured our school and spent time in classrooms observing how Jewish values, culture, and tradition are incorporated in daily learning. This includes classroom names that are thoughtfully chosen from Jewish values, reading PJ Library books that share aspects of Jewish identity, participating in Jewish blessings and rituals, utilizing food as a point of connection (baking challah for Shabbat, eating apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah, etc.), providing the children with constructivist-based provocations to connect with Jewish holidays in meaningful ways, and more! Visitors also viewed documentation sharing the many ways that the ECLC honors, celebrates, and fosters Jewish connection and community that is grounded in Jewish values.

It was such a special experience having the opportunity to share our school with fellow early childhood professionals coming from a very different context, worlds away, and to build a relationship with SOS International that we hope is the start of a lasting partnership in this work. 

If you’d like to learn more about SOS International and the work that they are doing to enrich Jewish identity and actively nurture Jewish community renewal, please check out their website https://sosintl.org.   

Torah and Jewish Values: Threads in the ECLC

Posted on by Dina Backer

The High Holidays are much anticipated and loved – and, crazy and chaotic all at the same time. No matter if they are ‘early’ or ‘late’, weekends or weekdays, they are always a change of pace – and a little disruptive right at the start of the school year. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur carry big themes and ideas, including a deep look at ourselves and how we can do better where we missed the mark in the past year. Sukkot follows right behind. Finally, Simchat Torah rounds out the four weeks.   

I love that Simchat Torah is last because Torah is not a one-day theme: Torah is with us all year long. Sure, the celebration may be contained to reading the end and then the beginning of the Torah all at once, but as we march through our lives, words of Torah can be with us day in and day out. 

Even if we don’t think consciously of it, the ‘rules’ we live by can be traced back to words of Torah. Torah tells us we are created “B’tzelem Eloheem,” (in Gd’s image). The Torah tells us how to live that way. Being kind, helping others, supporting those less fortunate are just a start to the list. Other actions fill the categories that are headed by Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and Tzedakah (righteous giving) and Gemilut Chasadim (acts of kindness). We can look to Torah to offer suggestions on almost any challenge we face. 

In our Alexandria Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC), our rooms are ‘Jewish flavored,’ reminding us of our heritage and, in the words of the V’ahavta, we try to “teach them (Jewish values)  to our children.” We talk with our kids about Derech Eretz (good manners) and help our young friends think about the words they use with each other. Tikkun Olam is a thread through our year as we think about how our actions effect our classrooms, our community, and the world at large. We want to send our kids out into the world (or at least to Kindergarten) knowing how to think and ask questions—and how to treat each other with kindness and respect. It’s a tall challenge. It’s a good thing we have the Torah to guide us. And, because the Torah is so important—its nice that every once in a while, we celebrate its importance in our lives.

Chag Sameach!

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: Meet Sawyer

Posted on by Jessica Adams

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is here and we’re reaching out to ask for your help to support children like Sawyer.

Sawyer was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in February of 2020 when he was just 4 years old, and a month before COVID shut everything down.

Treatment, both inpatient and outpatient, was very isolating to ensure Sawyer’s safety. His family also often had to be isolated from friends and family to protect Sawyer.

Despite the painful journey cancer creates, Horizon Day Camp, in-hospital program Horizon on Wheels, and year-round reunion days provide a place where children with cancer can just be children.

While the days of undergoing treatment were challenging for a social kid like Sawyer, he and his brother Hudson found joyful experiences through our in-hospital Horizon on Wheels program and Horizon Day Camp.

Sawyer’s radiant smile is a testament to the hope and love found at Horizon.

“Horizon has been such an amazing experience for our family. It has given both Sawyer and Hudson the opportunity to make new friends, strengthen their bond with each other and the ability to try new activities and stretch themselves while building confidence.” – Jenna, mom to Sawyer and Hudson

After two years, Sawyer completed his treatment in June of 2022.

What Sawyer has enjoyed most about Horizon has been the activities – especially the sports, dancing, and arts and crafts. He also loves Color War and working hard for his team to bring them to victory. He loves the ability to swim on a regular basis and show off his skills!

Thank you for being part of our Horizon-Metro DC family and helping to bring the joys of childhood to the many children and families we serve.

Every day at Horizon is a new beginning. With your support, we ensure that children like Sawyer – and their families – wake up to brighter days filled with the magic of childhood.

On behalf of your Horizon-Metro DC team, and particularly brave campers like Sawyer, thank you for your kind and generous consideration.