Summer Camps, Summer Activities

BACI Summer Teen Program

The Burnaby
Association for Community Inclusion starts taking registration for the
Summer Teen Program on Tuesday, May 1, 2012. The program will run July 3rd to August 24th.

The Summer Teen Program offers cool,
full-day adventures for youth with disabilities. The program is a
Ministry of Children and Family Development funded service for Teens
aged 13 to 18 who live in Burnaby and New Westminster.  Please see THE FLYER for more information.

Day Camps:

The first place to look is your local
Parks and Recreation department.  Every City and Municipality in the
lower mainland has both segregated and inclusive programs for children
with special needs.  Don’t forget that you can choose to have your child
included in typical summer programs with either paid or volunteer
support people.  Including your child in a typical program will give you
much more flexibility than restricting yourself to only segregated or
specialized programs.  If your child is already happy in an arts, sports
or recreation program in your community check out the summer camp
options for that program as soon as possible.  Summer camps fill up
fast!

Think about using a camp near where you
work rather than where you live.  It might be easier to drop off and
pick up en-route to your workplace.  Cities and Municipalities have
their recreation programs on-line so it is much easier to research your
options.

Burnaby:   Visit the CHILDREN’S CAMPS page for information on policies for  support and accessibility as well as the Activity Guide.  Also see the  Leisure Guide for all spring/summer programs.

Vancouver:    Visit the ACCESS PROGRAMS page for policies and programs.  This page also links to children/youth and adult programs – see links on left side of page

Tri-Cities & New Westminster:  Summer recreation program information and support options will be available in late May.

Overnight Camps: 

The big daddy of overnight camps is EASTER SEALS CAMPS. 
They have been around a long time and are well resourced with
well-trained staff.  There are only a few weeks available since each
“week” is specialized in age and disability.  You can request that your
child shares a room with the friends they made the year before and many
children make life-long friends at summer camp.  The big draw for Easter
Seals is that it is FREE.

ZAJAC RANCH
is a high quality overnight camp.  Weeks are sponsored by organizations
or there are weeks targeting specific disabilities.  This camp can be
expensive but don’t forget that many disability organizations have
campership programs to help finance your child’s camp experience.

HINT:  Make
sure you join the organization that represents your child’s disability
in British Columbia.  You may find that they sponsor disability-specific
camps or offer camperships to families to help finance a camp
experience.

Links to some Resource sites:

 The BC Camping Association (BCCCA):  This is a site for accredited summer day and overnight camps with a good search engine.  BC CAMPING ASSOCIATION

 Autism Community Training (ACT):  Some good camp listings for both typical children and children with special needs, see   SUMMER CAMP RESOURCES  

 Vancouver Parks and Recreation:  Access Services RESOURCES AND LINKS