What do we value at Harbor Camps?

Harbor Camps’ mission is to build confidence, resilience, and community for transgender & non-binary youth and their families through camp experiences.

At Harbor Camps, we recognize that our campers and staff have complex, multifaceted identities. While our campers are all transgender, non-binary, or similarly-identified, many of them have other equally important identities. We strive to uphold anti-racist values, and we condemn acts of interpersonal, institutional, and systemic racism. At the same time, we acknowledge that we have been part of a larger system that shows preference toward white experiences and has not paid enough attention to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) experiences.

We must continuously work to make sure that our campers and staff understand what racism is and how we address it at our camp. Outside of camp, our BIPOC campers have the added stresses of racism on top of being trans/non-binary. At Harbor Camps, we strive to ensure our BIPOC campers don’t experience these stresses while at camp. We commit to the ongoing work of addressing these issues when they come up, learning from them, and working to see that they do not happen again.

We would also like to challenge the image of the outdoors and camp as spaces primarily for white people; we acknowledge that camps have a history of being less accessible to BIPOC campers and staff. As we continue this work, It is important that we center the voices and experiences of the BIPOC members of our community.

How are we putting our values into practice? 

• Our leadership team members continue to educate themselves and strive to make decisions with knowledge of, and attention to, how systemic racism impacts our campers of color, their families, and our staff of color. This is an ongoing learning process, and we acknowledge that there is a lot of work yet to do, including addressing the fact that our own leadership team is predominantly white.
• Thanks to the generosity of donors, we are able to provide an unlimited amount of financial aid and scholarships for any camper in need; we never turn away a family for inability to pay. We have done this since our inaugural year.
• BIPOC members of our advisory board guide us and help us to keep moving forward in areas of racial equity.
• We have been working with a DEI consultant group owned and operated by BIPOC people in camping; they will be continue our many years of pre-camp trainings for our entire staff on issues of race and equity.
• Each year we devote a section of our pre-camp staff orientation to microaggression training. Our counselors report that it is helpful to practice interventions at camp, with co-counselors, holding each other accountable, in the actual environment in which these situations will inevitably arise.
• In 2022 we launched a regularly-meeting group for parents/guardians of color that meets to discuss relevant issues and then advise us on how to help our campers of color have the best experience possible at camp, as well as help us to reach out to more trans & non-binary kids in communities of color.
• We ask all parents/guardians to read specific age-appropriate books on racism, from the BLM online instructional library, and talk to their children about these books and topics prior to the summer.
• We have an Equity Fund for staff of color and other staff applicants from underrepresented staff groups; funds are made available to pay for travel expenses for these staff if needed, in addition to salary.
• We are expanding our recruiting strategies to hire more trans & non-binary staff of color.

We acknowledge that we have more work to do, and we remain committed to a Harbor Camps that is welcoming, inclusive, and supportive of our campers of color, parents/guardians of color, and staff of color. 

This is a living document and will be changed or updated as needed. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Director Umut Dursun at umut@harborcamps.org or 781.400.1617.

There are many great resources online and in print. The following are just a start:

Resources Available Online:

• Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?
• When Civility Is Used As A Cudgel Against People Of Color
• 103 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
• How White Parents Can Talk To Their Kids About Race
• Teaching Your Child About Black History
• From the American Camp Association: Race and Camp: Creating an Environment in Camp Communities That Is Truly Welcoming to People of Color – Bob Ditter, September 2020

Books:

• How to Be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning Stamped from the Beginning – A young adult version of Kendi’s book Stamped from the Beginning
• Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America