Aibu about Camp America 'Underprivileged Camp'

[Vixxfacee]

Can you let me know if I am being unreasonable about this and if so why.

I was looking through Camp America's website.
They have different camps and one that was called Underprivileged Camp caught my eye. Purely because I can't believe that it would actually be called that.

I clicked on it and I see a black child with a white working (presumably a privileged person ) plus numerous black children swimming in a lake.

The page warns that the camp will be more rustic (more like shitter ) than the other camps.

I am all for children from less well off backgrounds being included but I am pretty shocked that they are being grouped together in a 'rustic' camp rather than all camps being equal and all children together.

This is the website campamerica.co.uk/the-experience/types-of-camp/underprivileged-camps

Not sure how to link on my phone.

Thoughts?

That's what I mean bruff - it balances out to cost neutral. Can you imagine employing an au pair for months for the cost of her meals only?

But, hey ho, cultural difference and all that

I did Camp America when I was at university and I hope that my children will too. It was an incredible experience and a chance to really experience living and volunteering in America. The camp I worked on was a Jewish camp which as. Run as a not for profit organisation and I was one of only about 6 or 7 British counsellors. I think I paid about £500 to go which included my flight and visa. The other counsellors and the camp owners were lovely to us. I recall that I should have been paid about $500 for the 2 months, this was fine with me as I wasn't doing it for the money but they paid me $1000 and I was given about another $1500 in tips. Bearing in mind this was 1994 it was a small fortune. This paid for all my travelling after camp and cleared my overdraft.

I can honestly say it was the best experience of my life. I don't really see the issue with underprivileged camp. I don't like the name but I think it's a really good thing to offer and there are similar intervention programmes here. It may well go a long way to changing many of those children's lives permanently for the better.

Camp America gets the £752. That pays for flights and their placement fee.

The camp provides bed and board and a wages of around $900 to £1200 depending on skills at the end.

Okay but that's not 'wages' that's 'pocket money' right? And they've already paid for their own flights via the 'fee'?

DS2 was a camp counselor for 3 summers. I think he always ended up with some money after fares and visa costs. He met young people from all over the world who worked with him. His camp was for fairly wealthy kids and he chose it because a friend was returning there for a second time, but he could have opted for a camp for disabled or "under privileged children". The camps run for around 7 weeks and most children are there all the time. Obviously it is a business and it only has a short time each year to make a profit.

Is the name ok?

Is ok to use pictures of all black kids?

Anyway you might as well work in England at one of the British camps over the summer. Then use that money to go travelling if you're that desperate to go to America.

I have never heard anyone have a problem with the Camp America scheme before and have to be honest, I'm a little shocked. Yes, you have to pay to go, yes it's going to be more than some people can afford but for those who are interested in it, it's the most incredible opportunity to volunteer, to experience a totally different way of life and to build skills which stay with you forever. I can't see anything exploitative about it at all.

There's very, very few camps operating in the UK in the same manner as the thousands in the US. Even to work at PGL you normally need to be available for the entire season (starting in January). It's just not an experience you can get here.

I did Camp America every summer whilst I was a student, and have returned many times since to visit friends I made whilst working there. It changed my entire attitude to life and to my career goals. So I'd say the fees were definitely worth it!

I have a problem with Camp America.

I was 19. Signed up with them to do a summer camp stint. Got all the info, Camp XYZ in New York state.

Arrived in New York. Caught bus to the tiny town where someone from Camp XYZ was supposed to pick me up. No one there. Called the camp. 'Oh, sorry, yes, there's a been a mix up, we don't need you'.

I was 19. I had flown from Manchester to New York, found this tiny place and you don't fucking need me?

I called Camp America. You can imagine the state I was in (don't say New York)

They panicked. Made up some bullshit excuse, 'oh we tried to contact you' etc etc LIES. LIES LIES.

They found me a camp in the same region that decided to take me to do them a favour.

It was not a good experience because all the other staff had started two weeks previously and knew each other, friendship groups formed etc.

Also, FWIW, the camp paid Camp America $3000, I got something ridiculous like $200 for the entire fucking summer.

I will be encouraging my boys to do it. I had friends who had a fantastic time....

'I can't see anything exploitative about it at all'

Really? Like, honestly?

You work for them, don't you, FunandGames?

BUNAC are waaaaay better, more professional, fair, organised.

And they don't leave you stranded in the arse end of America

Well ds friend is going back for second time next year, my niece also had a brilliant time as well, neither felt exploited and both had time and money to travel for a couple of weeks after.

toffeeboffin I'm sorry to hear your experience, it sounds horrible.

I couldn't have been treated more kindly. I was on camp for 2 months and as I mentioned in a previous post, was one of very few British counsellors. The rest were Americans who had been going to that camp since they were 8 years old and has grown up together. They couldn't have been more welcoming. We had 24 hours off every week and with it fail one of the Americans would take me back to their family home (most lived within a 1-2 hour drive) to stay the night and to spend the day with them. It was amazing and there's simply not the camp structure in the UK to emulate that model.

The webpage is disgusting. Why call it 'Underprivileged Camp'?

Because these kids need even more reminders?!!!

I do mean that it wasn't exploitative. You absolutely shouldn't have been in the situation you were in and on that occasion they behaved appallingly but as a concept, no, it's not exploitative. It does exactly what it offers, a chance to work on an American summer camp with a placement and visa arranged for you.

Glad other people had good experiences, they really did not work for me.

I did BUNAC the year after and they were much better.

DS2 also had a fantastic time and didn't feel exploited. Made loads of friends from all over the world. He should have been doing City internships, I suppose, but as he is now in the City ... and will be working for the next 50 odd years, his student summers are the stuff of great memories!

I do some work on a big estate (project) fitting that description here in London and it's just not something you would say or call a scheme. It would offend here.

The camps are not called underprivileged camps! They are probably called "Camp Rainbow" or whatever, but they are for underprivileged kids which is how they are being described to potential volunteers.

Look up "befriending uk" and you'll see words and phrases such as "chaotic home life", "vulnerable", and "desperately in need of a stable and supportive adult".

They are all different ways of calling an underprivileged child an underprivileged child.

Its not called "The Befriending Scheme For Kids With Chaotic Home Lifes Who Are Vulnerable" is it?

I don't see how its any different.

Oh and as a former underprivileged child, do you think it was some sort of secret it was blatantly obvious I was in the free school meals line and got free milk at break while wearing my supermarket standard sweater without the logo. You can spot an underprivileged child in the UK from a mile away. I think a few people including OP need to come back down to planet earth.

Right - I'm going to chip in as someone who has both worked at and gone to summer camp.

These camps are not actually called Camp Underprivileged. It is a descriptor as to the children they serve. Same with blind/diabetes/cancer/etc. camp. I had friends who went to both 'blind' and 'diabetes' camp and they loved it. The camps had other names like 'Camp Sugar Pine' and 'Camp Bloomfield' It was a chance to be with other kids that had similar experiences to them and, equally important, a chance to get away from parents and siblings!

I went to and was a counselor at Girl Scouts camps. I always had a campership (think scholarship, but for camp) to go. No one knew I wasn't paying for the experience. There were also whole troops of girls that were funded for their entire stay. It was a nonissue. No one knew and no one was singled out. It was an experience I would have never of had otherwise and it did wonders for my confidence and self-esteem.

(That said they should have probably chosen a more diverse picture for the page)

I went with bunac. Life changing experience, loved every second. And as previous posters have pointed out, camp America and bunac are basically a recruitment agency for non-USA staff and they sort out your visa and flights. The flights are really expensive with them, because they book you two single tickets, rather than a return. When I went back, I sorted all that side of things myself.

Underprivilieged camps - aren't they just trying to be clear to those that they are recruiting that there is a difference between private, religious, charity based etc?

Just don't want anyone to be put off doing what can be the most amazing thing.

Come back down to earth why?
I was also one of those kids so what are you talking about?

I worked at one of these that was run by the Woodcraft movement. It was tough, long hours, but I came away with so much experience.

I recall sitting next to someone who'd worked at a private camp on the plane home. she had over $4000 in tips from the parents of the children she'd had all summer.

We had one box of biscuits between 54 of us! We had a new group of 12 arrive every Sunday.

Well then would it offend you to be invited on a scheme set up to give you experiences you wouldn't get otherwise?

You said it was disgusting to allow the term "underprivileged" to be used... Hence why I told you to get back down to planet earth.

Just to make it clear.

Well yes it would offend me to go to a camp pointing out I'm Underprivileged. Like I didn't know and I am getting labelled and sent to crap camp. The same if I was blind or sent to a blind Camp.

Like I said what offends me the most is the black kids with the white privileged guy.