Jewish Camps Get Grants To Better Integrate Campers And Staff With Disabilities

Image by foundation for jewish camping

By Marcy Oster April 1, 2019

(JTA) — Sixteen Jewish camps in North America have been awarded grants to increase accessibility for campers and staff with disabilities.

The grants are part of the $12 million Yashar Initiative, a program of the Foundation for Jewish Camp funded by The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. The Yashar Initiative was designed to address the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorder, as well as people with intellectual, developmental, physical and sensory disabilities.

The grants will go for capital improvements, professional development, staff training, research and evaluation.

Each of the first 16 camps that received grants was required to independently raise 25 percent of the project’s cost before applying. They will receive money for both capital improvements, as well as a program grant totaling $2.5 million for the first round of the initiative. The camps anticipate finishing their improvements by the summer of 2020.

Each grant recipient also committed to increasing its total campers with disabilities to at least 5 percent of the camper population.

The camps that received the grants are Beber Camp, Wisconsin; B’nai Brith Camp, Oregon; Camp Keff, California; Camp Ramah, California; Camp Ramah Poconos, Pennsylvania; Camp Simcha, New York; Camp Solomon Schechter, Washington; Camp Tawonga, California; JCC Camp Chi, Wisconsin; JCC Camp Ruach, New Jersey; JCC Camp Yachad, New Jersey; JCC Camp Z Frank Apachi, Illinois; Mid-Island Y JCC Camp, New York; Ramah Darom, Georgia; Ramah Day Camp, New York; and URJ Camp Harlam, Pennsylvania.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO