"A Camp Experience Changing Lives"

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the lives of Americans. With unemployment at historic highs and children in need of even more support and enrichment than ever before, Beyond The Natural Foundation is offering a modified format to summer camp in accordance with the State of Maryland and CDC guidelines.

In the summer of 2020, thanks to the generous support of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative, Beyond The Natural Foundation (BTNF), in collaboration with Magic Minds, Inc. and Stillmeadow Community Fellowship church, created a tuition-FREE summer camp experience to provide high-dosage enrichment programming where youth get to learn positive ways to express themselves through musical art, collaborate on projects that create community, enhance their critical thinking and writing skills, and decrease summer learning loss. 

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During this summer camp experience, youth grow musically by learning Songwriting, Beat Making, Music Production, Piano, Drumming and Vocal Performance while exploring the fundamental aspects of rhythm and harmony. Campers get to develop academically through progress-driven academic instruction for the upcoming school grade in Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, and Language Arts subject areas. Since BTNF summer camp is designed to be one of the most transformative experiences a child can have, campers get to have fun with other enrichments like Beekeeping, Bird-catching, and Nature Exploration in Stillmeadow Peace Park.

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At BTNF, we are passionate about accessing the quality of our programs and the achievement of program goals. In summer 2020, our SMART goal assessment was the following:

• For our Engagement Metric, our Average Daily Attendance was 86.2% and 80% of our enrolled participants attended at least 80% of the time. It is amazing to see that our program was able to accomplish this during a global pandemic!

• For our Better Off Metric, our youth evolved during summer camp evidenced by 97% our campers demonstrated Knowledge Gain as assessed by our academic teachers. This validates our successful effort of decreasing summer learning loss.

• For the second year in a row, BTNF achieved a Program Satisfaction Rate of 100% at the end of the 7-week summer camp experience...even during a global pandemic!

To top it off, we successfully followed CDC protocols and had NO POSITIVE COVID CASES!

To be a resource to our communities, BTNF's modified camp offering is for 40 prospective campers residing in Southwest and Northeast Baltimore City from low income families whose parents or legal guardians have either been unemployed, furloughed, or experienced a 50% reduction in work hours as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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​In all efforts to be compliant with CDC guidelines as it relates to social distancing and other safety measures, our modified camp experience will be split into 2 cohorts of 20 campers across 2 sites (20 campers at Southwest Baltimore location and 20 campers at Northeast Baltimore location): each site being comprised of younger campers in grades 2 – 4 and older campers in grades 5 – 7. Our hybrid camp model includes in-person programming Monday - Thursday for all campers and virtual programming every Friday from 8:30a to 12:00p for all campers. 

Details

1. Camp Tuition: FREE

2. Camp Registration: $100 non-refundable per camper

3. Camp Site#1: Stillmeadow Community Fellowship, 5110 Frederick Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21229 (Southwest)

4. Camp Site#2: To Be Determined

5. Camp Session: July 5, 2021 to August 20, 2021.

6. Camp time is 8:00am – 4:00pm Monday through Thursday. Aftercare is available on these days from 4:00-5:00pm for $20/week per camper.

7. Campers are responsible for bringing their own lunch Monday through Thursday. BTNF will provide (1) Morning and (1) Afternoon snack. 

8. Virtual Camp is on Fridays from 8:30am to 12:00pm for all campers. Campers can participate from any smart device i.e. computer or tablet.

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BTNF is committed to creating opportunities for youth to experience the power of music arts enrichment programming that helps them refine their creativity through collaboration that builds community. 

"From Our Heart, To Yours"