What to do when campers are missing home.
Welcome to episode 11 of First Class Counsellors!
Campers who are missing home, homesick, whatever you want to call it - it’s something that camp counsellors will face in their camp careers. It’s inevitable and understandable. Our campers love their families, they are nervous about being away and they’re uncomfortable. When they are reacting to those feelings, it’s important that camp counsellors are equipped to both effectively and compassionately help them.
Oliver and Matt swear that they are trying to keep these episodes short, but what can you really expect from a topic as big as this one! Tune in to hear a whole hour of pro-tips and pro-mindsets to have when recognizing and supporting campers who are missing home.
In this episode, you’ll get:
10 signs that a camper may be missing home.
10 ways to prevent missing home from escalating into a camper crying or full-out wanting to home.
20 (YES, 20), different strategies for what to do if (when) a camper is crying or is insisting on going home.
…you can see why this one’s an hour-long :)
Remember that as you listen to this episode:
One strategy will not work for every camper. You’ll have to tweak these and make them work with the information you know about the camper who needs your help.
As we always say, make sure you’re following your camp’s policies and procedures. Don’t promise campers anything you can’t deliver on or anything would be against the way that your camp has trained you on. When in doubt about using a strategy, ask!
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As usual, we hope that what we offer to your staff is incredibly useful. If you do send this along, we would be happy to hear about it. Please let us know by emailing Matt at matt@gocamp.pro
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Get Ready - Counsellors, do this NOW to level up your counselling skills
Oliver:
Levels of Homesick, take a few minutes after this podcast and layer the levels of homesickness. 1 to going home. How do campers move up, when do other staff become involved?
Matt:
Write a Christmas or holiday card for your family, however you define it, and let them know how grateful you are for them. If you missed home as a camper, maybe send a note to a counsellor who got you to stay or helped you with compassion.
Host Links
Oliver Gregan, Summer and Families Camp Director at YMCA Camp Jewell
Matt Honsberger, Executive Producer of Podcasting at Go Camp Pro
What is First Class Counsellors?
Camp Directors, this Podcast isn’t for you. It’s time to delegate! First Class Counsellors is for your counselling staff, the ones who are on the ground, playing with kids and changing lives.
Each week, we’ll cover practical and accessible tips that will level up your camp counsellor skills. These are things every counsellor should know, but that you may not have time to teach in staff training.
Our two hosts, Oliver Gregan, Summer and Families Camp Director at YMCA Camp Jewell and Matt Honsberger from Go Camp Pro are excited to be able to provide this resource to camp counsellors and up and coming staff, who they believe, have the most important job at camp.