Summer Youth Camp Mixes Fun, Life Skills

COURT HOUSE – At a time when police departments across America are often in conflict with the neighborhoods they patrol, Middle Township Police Department held a week-long youth camp.
Aimed at middle school “tweens” the camp’s goal was improving relationships between the groups and providing the youths with various life skills. 
According to Sgt. Mark Higginbottom, middle schoolers in grades sixth, seventh and eighth are more likely to be disconnected from the police department and more likely to encounter disciplinary issues that can escalate as they get older.
He brought forth the idea for the camp after hearing about the success of one similar in Brick Township.
“When I heard a presentation about the camp, I wanted to bring it to our area because I thought it would be a good initiative to impact our youth,” Higginbottom said.
“I put together a presentation outlining why we should do it and presented it to the chief. A year later, we got the OK from the township and partnered with Cape Assist to bring it to fruition,” he added.
Last summer, 49 graduated from the program, having learned how to set goals and improve communication, decision-making skills, and their self-esteem. They also learned techniques for managing stress and anxiety, and skills on how to work better with others.
Activities ranged from trips to the Coast Guard Training Center Cape May to learn about potential careers, to tackling fears head-on at the Tree-to-Tree Adventure Park, in the County Park, where zip lines, Tarzan swings and other obstacles challenged the youths’ minds and bodies.
Higginbottom heads the department’s Special Services Unit and is responsible for training, community outreach and events, school resource officers and other activities. He believes relations with the middle schoolers have improved over the past two years.
“Three to five years before that, we saw an increase in negative encounters and more disciplinary issues at the schools,” he explained. “In the last two years, we’ve seen changes at the schools, officers are in the schools every day interacting face-to-face with the students, and as a result, the negative encounters have decreased. School disciplinary rates are improving, and juvenile arrests are down.
“We’ve done a number of activities over the past three years to improve the relationship between the police department and youths, and parents. I think they all are helping,” Higginbottom said.
He cited workshops on what to expect in encounters with law enforcement; educational programs such as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and LEAD (Law Enforcement Against Drugs) for fifth and seventh graders, and hosting Rachel’s Challenge, a legacy program promoting a positive climate in schools named for the first person killed in the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.
“It’s the most rewarding career field,” Higginbottom said about the police department, which he joined in 2001. Having grown up in Middle Township and graduated from Middle Township High School, he noted “My grandparents raised me. I wasn’t the best student in school. So to be doing what I do and see the result of our work is the best part of what I do.”
The summer youth camp was based on the nationally-recognized Botvin LifeSkills Training curriculum used in the schools already, according to Temerity Berry, a senior educator at Cape Assist. Lessons were reinforced with activities, which she said received positive feedback from the attendees because they were able to apply what they learned.
“When we went zip lining, the students were using their stress management skills to control their stress if they were afraid,” she explained.
“The staff was able to help talk them through it. If they weren’t afraid and wanted to jump right in, we talked about consequences of jumping right into things. We went to the water park, and that was about decision-making. The students were in small groups, and we were able to help them figure out how to decide things if two wanted to do one activity and two didn’t.
“Parents received information about what we did each day and questions they could ask,” Berry noted. “The police and our Healthy Community Coalition volunteers were amazing with the kids.”
The feedback from the program was so positive, according to Police Chief Christopher Leusner, that Middle Township will sponsor the camp again in 2018.
In addition, he said Wildwoods would be starting a camp this summer, and Lower Township will expand theirs.
“We had a grant to help fund the camp for four years, so we are going to help the other departments get theirs going,” Leusner said. Also, he and Higginbottom credited Burke Motor Group, Court House, with raising over $6,000 at a fundraiser for the camp.
Other businesses also contributed or donated to the camp, which campers attended without cost.
“Studies show that we have the best chance to influence students in the middle school ages,” Leusner noted, “because this is the age when peer pressure, drug use, and risky behavior can become problematic. If we can improve their skills in decision-making or self-esteem, for example, we can potentially stop any risky behavior.”
The camp was held at the Cape May County Police Academy in Crest Haven. Busing was provided by the Middle Township School District. Students applied through their schools or social media.
Berry and Higginbottom worked with school staff to have a mix of students who “were middle of the road, at risk and peers. We didn’t want any cliques; the only requirement was that they were Middle Township residents.”
Cape Assist plans to work with all three camps next summer, envisioning that their work during the summer bolsters what they teach during the school year.
“If we can help reinforce their life skills,” noted Katie Faldetta, Cape Assist executive director, “and reinforce what they learn with fun activities, then perhaps the knowledge will stick with them a little longer and help them have healthy lifestyles.”
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.