Gay Republic Daily
Open Forum - Camp offers young gays acceptance, self-esteem
vanrozenheim - Aug 06, 2007 - 11:21 PM
Post subject: Camp offers young gays acceptance, self-esteem
Camp offers young gays acceptance, self-esteem
Quote:
Maya Ashmore was one of 55 participants from their mid-teens to late 20s at this year's Camp fYrefly, an acronym for "fostering youth, resiliency, energy, fun, leadership -- yay!" The camp, which had a waiting list, ended Sunday. It aims to help lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered young adults explore and own their sexuality and become leaders in their communities, said the camp's co-founder Kristopher Wells. Wells founded the camp in 2004 with Dr. Andre Grace, his PhD supervisor in the University of Alberta's department of educational policy studies. Now in its fourth year, fYrefly has grown from 30 to 55 campers. As fYrefly's popularity grows, Wells said they're looking into making more camps across Canada, with the possibility of a Camp fYrefly East in Halifax. Wells said the camp gives young adults not only an improved sense of self-esteem, but a sense of social esteem because they know they have a peer support network.
That's the way to go. Take more of them, make the Camp permanent and you have a Gay town. Isn't it wonderfull that those kids have understood so early what many adult Gays can't grasp (due to the decades-long conditioning): that it is GREATE to be with your people, in a loving surrounding?
berto - Aug 07, 2007 - 05:05 PM
Post subject: RE: Camp offers young gays acceptance, self-esteem
And from a queer town, it's not that big a step to a queer city, territory... nation.
berto - Sep 02, 2007 - 01:38 PM
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Manitoba camp for gay youth hailed as a success
Quote:
Manitoba's first camp for gay youth, called an "absolutely amazing success" by organizers, was launched by a group of gay adults who remember their own camping experiences as unbearable.
Camp Aurora's inaugural four-day program ended Thursday, with 29 youth between the ages of 14 and 21 taking part. "Everyone was talking about how they were already excited for next year," camp director Jonny Sopotiuk told CTV.ca.
The camp's goal was to provide some acceptance, support and camaraderie not easily found outside Winnipeg's relatively small gay community.
Modeled after a similar camp in Alberta, Camp Aurora focused on "building and nurturing the leadership capabilities and resiliency of LGBTT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-identified and Two-spirited) and allied youth."
Feral - Sep 03, 2007 - 02:45 AM
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Quote:
"absolutely amazing success"
Well, of course it was a success. Why would it not have been? I see nothing "amazing" here.
Which leads me to my question -- is there some vernacular usage of the word 'amazing' in Manitoba (or Canada, for that matter) that I'm not getting?
The program really should be longer -- four days is inadequate. Were they to organize these outings every month (or most months, considering how very moosey Manitoba can be), then four days would be sufficient. They should stop calling it a camp though.
This, by the way, would be one of the more important bits:
Quote:
"It's hard to find this in our community, this kind of support," 20-year-old Scott Childs said.
It is unclear from its context in the story just what Mr Childs means by "this kind of support." Someone should probably get around to finding out... and then providing with all haste. There is no excuse whatsoever for our youth to have trouble finding support of any kind in the Gay community. It is not their task to locate it; it is the duty of the community to make it readily available.
I'm not too troubled by the omission though. The story also manages to cleverly omit the name of the organization that produced this fine program. It manages to be completely ignorant of the name of the similarly fine program in Alberta. It manages to tease about "plans to launch similar camps in Halifax and other cities across Canada" without ever dropping a single clue that the reporters have any idea who plans these camps and where.
Whatever. Somehow I already know the answers to most of those questions, and a simple e-mail would get me the answer to the last one (should curiosity start to burn), so a reporter's seemingly deliberate ignorance is of little import to me.
You can toss some Loonies at Camp Aurora (and other activities) here. (You can read about donating here, as well, though reading about donating is not at all the same thing as coughing up dollars.)
vanrozenheim - Sep 03, 2007 - 03:17 AM
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Feral wrote:
Quote:
"It's hard to find this in our community, this kind of support," 20-year-old Scott Childs said.
It is unclear from its context in the story just what Mr Childs means by "this kind of support."
I strongly suspect that he actually means "any kind of support" -- both from the straight society and the Gay community. Excessive support on the one side can compensate for the lack of such on the other, but if there is no support from anybody, it's really a hard time.
Feral - Sep 03, 2007 - 10:32 AM
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I think you may be right, though without asking, there is no telling just what is on the young man's mind exactly. In any event, the Rainbow Resource Centre, who claims to provide "support and resources to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and two-spirited communities of Manitoba and North Western Ontario" can stop patting themselves on the back at once (though really, Camp Aurora was, by all accounts, a brilliant success) and redouble their efforts elsewhere.
Mean of me, I know... but I didn't write RRC's mission statement -- they did. It seems to me self-evident that they need to apply their efforts differently.