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OriginCare is MESH Training and Support for Camps and Youth Serving Organizations

Goal:  To make a difference in the lived experience for every individual through camp.

Three modules provide the framework for supporting Mental, Emotional and Social health for both campers and staff, working towards healthy camp communities.

Module 1

Course 1: Intro to MESH and the Lived Experience in a Camp Setting

There is increasing evidence regarding the challenged state of mental, emotional, and social, health (MESH) for youth and adolescents.  Youth have experienced adversity and trauma impacting their worldview.  This session will outline the foundational components and considerations related to creating a camp experience to address MESH.

Course 2: An Introduction to Vulnerability, Gratitude and Hope

Vulnerability is a building block for courage, joy and gratitude.  These elements impact the ability of youth and young adults to navigate a hope-filled life.  This course will discuss the importance of these influences in each of our lives and how we can tap into opportunities for growth and change. 

Course 3: Healing Centered Engagement: Four Pillars to a Healthier Camp

Camps are focused on healthy growth and maturation of youth as a means to a productive life.  Most staff and campers have experienced stress, adversity, and/or trauma and need camps to lean into healing centered engagement by first recognizing opportunities, intervening well, and helping to minimize escalated emotional events.  This course will describe the key attributes to promote healing and help with tools for de-escalation in moments of need. 

Module 2

Course 1: MESH: A Pathway to Healing at Camp

 In order to grow youth engagement and self-worth, we should consider incorporating language and tools that help staff navigate MESH situations at camp.  This lesson outlines some key understandings of affirming language and open posturing that provides the support needed to promote health and healing. 

Course 2: Circle of Love:  Creating a Trauma-Responsive Camp Community

The Center for Disease Control reports that 64% of individuals experience one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) before reaching 18 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016).   As relational beings, the act of living involves supportive interaction, care, and love for one another. This course will explore how trauma-informed care can be approached within a camping context, and offer practical solutions, techniques, and approaches for youth development and camping professionals. These tools will empower leaders at camp to care for youth who have faced adversity and to adequately equip and train their staff to do the same.

Course 3: Unpacking the MESH Resource Guide and Pocket Guide

As we navigate MESH care at camp, a critical step is to equip staff with tools and resources that can support their work “in the moment”.  The MESH Resource Guide and Pocket Guide are tools to guide interactions with campers and staff.  The resource guide outlines pre-camp activities, camp interventions, camp staff preparation, camp health services, and much more.  The pocket guide was created by counselors for counselors to serve MESH needs.  These tools outline simple statements of affirmation, steps in stress care, behavior strategies, creating culture and more.  This course will walk through the Resource Guide and Pocket Guide outlining how to incorporate these resources for the benefit of all.

Module 3:

Course 1: Your Mind and You: Navigating Neurological Stress Responses

When was the last time you cognitively processed your response to a situation? Research shows we are twenty times more likely to process the cause of our stress than our response to stress. The combination of media, illness, politics, and natural disasters have made the terrain of life more stressful than ever. In this session, we will provide training to become more in tune with our own toxic stress and trauma so we can provide care for others.

Course 2: Emotional Telephone: What’s the message?

Emotions are messy! Actions do not always match words. We have all been in a situation when we wonder what a camper, staff member, or caregiver is trying to communicate. Together, let’s explore how we receive and give messages. How do we express emotions and why does it matter that they are interpreted correctly? This will be an interactive course, join us as we use a simple game to explore the connection between emotions, communication, and creating a safe space and camp culture for all.

Course 3: Interactive MESH Learning

ACH Communities: Healthcare Providers | Behavioral Health Specialists | Directors

This nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by the Virginia Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Criteria for successful completion:

• Attendance at the entire event
• Completion of the evaluation form

Nursing contact hours will be awarded for completion of this activity until June 18, 2025.