NE MESH Supports Resource Community, Oct 2023 - May 2024
ACA New England Office, Lexington, MA Visit Website
Thursday, October 19, 2023
- Thursday, May 09, 2024
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Resource Community Series: MESH Systems and Supports at Camp (200-Level)
Have you/your camp been setting up mental, emotional, and social health (MESH) supports for your staff and campers or are you ready to take the next steps to do so? This series of monthly facilitated discussions (October to May) is designed to give camp leaders with decision-making responsibilities the space and support to dive deep into examining what your camp is already doing, identifying gaps, and setting intentions for future actions. For example:
- Do you have staff dedicated to social/emotional support of campers/staff and if so, what is their role and how is it going? If not, what would it take to get you there?
- What resources are in place in case of a mental health emergency or a crisis requiring urgent emotional/mental health support for your staff/campers?
- What kind of MESH training does/should your leadership staff get each year? Counselors?
- Have your staff expressed the need for more breaks or time off? What actions can you take?
- How are your health forms/intake systems providing you with the information you need to best support campers and staff (or what needs to change)?
- What innovative things do you want to try and how can colleagues help you workshop ideas?
Nick Teich, PhD, LCSW, founder and former CEO of Harbor Camps and owner of Fairwinds Consulting, LLC, will moderate the group. His role will be to encourage participant-led discussions, provide resources, offer observations and insights, all while keeping the conversation and session flow going!
Resource community participants should be in a role where they are responsible for making decisions about MESH programming and policy at their camp or have direct influence/input into that process.
This series is not designed to be a how-to, but an interactive, live, discussion-based opportunity for participants to have meaningful conversations about the MESH systems and supports at their camp. Sessions will not be recorded. There will be two sessions in-person (one local to Lexington, MA and one at the New England Camp Conference in Manchester, NH), one hybrid opportunity, and five Zoom sessions. The schedule is as follows:
- October 19, 2023,10 am - 1 pm, In-person
- November 16, 2023, 10 am - 11:30 am, Zoom
- December 14, 2023, 10 am - 11:30 am, Zoom
- January18, 2024, 10 am - 11:30 am, Zoom
- February 15, 2024, 10 am - 11:30 am, Zoom
- March 21/22/23, 2024, In-person at ACANE conference, 90 minutes (day/time TBD)
- April 18, 2024, 10 am - 1 pm, Hybrid (in-person attendance highly recommended)
- May 9, 2024, 10 am - 11:30 am, Zoom
Trying to decide if this is a good fit for you? We’d say yes if 1) your job includes leadership responsibilities related to decision-making around mental, emotional, and social health supports to your camp community; 2) you have started this work or plan to take action by summer 2024; 3) you are excited to openly and honestly share your knowledge and perspectives with other camp in the resource community; 4) you can prioritize and commit to attending the full series of sessions.
Registration is for the duration of the series – eight sessions in total.
If you are looking for more skill-based sessions or other resource communities, please look at ACA, New England’s event calendar or reach out to ACA, New England for help identifying other opportunities to meet these needs.