Taking students camping is definitely a good way to get to know them beyond the classroom – to nurture relationships, to encourage students and to guide them to new discoveries about themselves, their abilities and their connection to the world around them.
As we travel the country writing and working with leaders of schools and non-profit organizations, we are privileged to meet so many people who skillfully connect with the young people in their lives.
For some, those connections come in an after-school spoken word poetry club. Others are doing it through video game clubs, or sports organizations.
Some build those connections through taking children and teens from low-income communities to plays and restaurants that they would not otherwise experience.
Some work on service projects with young people, finding that as they work together, new levels of respect and understanding emerge.
Others build connections in very informal ways, by constantly opening their homes to groups of young people, allowing them to just come by and eat, watch movies, play games or simply talk.
And in whatever way those connections are built, we see them making a difference, as young people open up about the challenges they face – their hopes, their dreams, their fears. And in those moments, change begins to happen, first in the lives of the young people and the adults who serve them. And eventually in the broader community.
How are you building connections? What are you learning? Where do you hope it all goes?
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