Range of Trainings Equip Staff to Better Serve Campers
By Johanna Ernst
Ogichi staff women are driven and resourceful. When we made the decision not to have camp this past summer, our staff didn’t shrug it off and slip into complacency. Instead, we asked the question, “What can we do now to make the summer of 2021 the best ever for our campers?”
Answers ranged from teaching virtual classes for campers and publishing recipes from the Ogichi kitchen to hosting dance parties and even a final Grateful Circle—all via Zoom. In addition to creating an internal website to house all things Ogichi, the staff participated in several trainings with the goal of helping our campers find the best version of themselves while at Ogichi and beyond. As parents, we are keenly aware that this past year has taken its toll on our daughters’ mental health. While camp cannot undo this stress, we can learn more about the value of being present and connecting with one another, and when to seek help on behalf of a camper.
LDACs practice portaging a canoe. (Liz Hattemer)
With these objectives in mind, the Ogichi staff participated in workshops focused on creating a mental health toolbox that would equip us with the necessary skills to serve our campers and each other.
CLIFTON STRENGTHS ASSESSMENT
Staff member Grace Gardner, the coordinator for Greek life and leadership at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, kicked off our work by administering the CliftonStrengths assessment to the staff.
“The CliftonStrengths assessment is a powerful tool that helps individuals identify, understand and maximize their strengths,” explains Grace, who will also administer the assessment in our Leadership Development & Advanced Canoeing (LDAC) classes this coming summer.
“A strengths-based development approach, to me, reflects the mission of the Ogichi Daa Kwe team and community. It flips a traditional development model on its head and focuses on talents instead of weaknesses,” she says. “As a young woman, Ogichi helped me see that everyone has something to contribute, and that’s what I try to show my students through Strengths coaching.”
“Spending three virtual hours doing this training with the team of amazing young women that make Ogichi run was the highlight of my summer—it was the second-best thing to physically being in the lodge all together,” she adds. “To do leadership coaching for staff that I was once a counselor to really felt like a full-circle moment.”
“A strengths-based development approach, to me, reflects the mission of the Ogichi Daa Kwe team and community. It flips a traditional development model on its head and focuses on talents instead of weaknesses.”
STRONG-SPIRITED RELATIONSHIPS
In another training, Nichol Ernst, a former Kooch-i-ching staff member, discussed the importance of developing strong relationships with campers. Nichol is the executive director and co-owner of Summit Achievement, a wilderness therapy school in Maine, where he also works as a therapist.
The goal of his training, he says, was to help counselors “understand how to utilize basic therapeutic rapport, building skills to better facilitate and guide transformative moments that campers have in the wilderness and in camp.”
“We also discussed basic techniques for holding limits and helping campers manage symptoms related to anxiety, depression and eating issues,” he adds.
ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT
Kari Commerford, the director of juvenile services for the Gunnison, Colorado school system, held a training on adolescent development.
The training covered “basic changes in adolescence including neurobiological, cognitive and emotional with tips for communication and supporting youth,” including “ways to build on youths’ strengths, provide support and opportunities to help them achieve their goals and transitions to adulthood,” says Kari, the mother of three Ogichi campers.
“Positive Youth Development,” she adds, “means viewing the adolescent years as full of potential rather than a period of risk and problems to be solved.”
LOVE AND LOGIC
Finally, our staff participated in a favorite training, Love and Logic, led by Andy Johnsrud, an Ogichi dad and the founder of Warriors of the Open Heart, which runs parenting workshops out of Rochester, Minnesota.
Love and Logic is built around the science of caring and respectful relationships. An authentic, loving connection between our staff and campers forms the foundation of good behavior and healthy decision-making, which is exactly what we want at camp and on trips.
“It is essential and exciting that we get to provide the loving limits our kids need to take their plunge into life skillfully,” says Andy. “Truly empowering our kids means creating plenty of space within those limits so they can learn the basic function of cause and effect. These are the seeds we have the opportunity to plant with our kids while they’re with us so they can adapt and thrive in the real world.”
This article was originally published in the Fall 2020 issue of Songs of the Paddle.