Center for Family Justice Begins Second Season of Camp HOPE

MONROE, CT -- This weekend 24 children from Fairfield County will board buses for Camp HOPE America- Connecticut, a therapeutic camp and mentoring program for local children impacted by the generational cycles of domestic and sexual violence. .

Camp HOPE America-Connecticut, serving children in Monroe, Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Trumbull and Stratford, is the first summer camp and mentoring program in New England for children who have experienced primary or secondary abuse and trauma, the Center for Family Justice said in a release. CFJ is offering the camp in close collaboration with the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA Camp Hi-Rock in the Massachusetts’ Berkshires.

“We are thrilled to bring this program for the second summer season to children who have experienced trauma they did not deserve,” says Debra A. Greenwood, President/CEO of CFJ. “By founding a Camp HOPE in our region, we have taken an important step toward giving kids back part of the childhoods they have lost to abuse and trauma. We are also giving them hope they can lead safer, healthier lives free of trauma and abuse in the future.”

Camp enrollment has almost doubled from its inaugural season in 2007. This year, CFJ was able to send a total of 45 children to attend the program during two successive weeks at Camp Hi-Rock.

It costs approximately $1,000 for CFJ to send a camper for a week of overnight camp and hundreds more dollars to outfit each camper with gear for a week at camp. Each child who participates in the program does so for free.

“We have had an outpouring of community support for this program from donors and volunteers who helped bring this life-changing experience to these kids,” said Greenwood. “We are also incredibly grateful to the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA and YMCA Camp Hi-Rock for a partnership which makes it possible for us to bring our children to an exceptional, accredited summer camp.”

Camp HOPE America-Connecticut is modeled after several other Camp HOPE programs which have launched throughout the United States during the past several years. The first Camp HOPE opened in San Diego, Calif. in 2003.