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When Summer School is Not Enough

Aspen Academy helps teens get back on track behaviorally so they can succeed academically. Teens also earn credit to help them catch up for the next school year. Read more about how Aspen helps when Summer School Is Not Enough...

Desperate Parents with Out-of-Control Teens Seek Help From Summer Wilderness Camps

Counselors who work at therapeutic summer camps say that parents are often at the end of their ropes by the time they turn to them for help. They hear refrains like these:

I can't take another night of not knowing where he is.

I'm pretty sure my daughter is on drugs.

I can't concentrate at my job – I keep thinking about the police and juvenile court all the time. I'm afraid I'll get fired.

His mother and I spent seven hours driving around all night, trying to find her the last time she ran away.

We're always crying, all the time.

"It's so hard for our parents," said one therapist at SUWS in Old Fort, North Carolina, a program for children ages 11 through 17 years. "They don't want to separate from their child because there is so much negativity going on between them. And turning to a residential program makes them feel like failures as parents."

Paul Deal, a field supervisor with Adirondacks Leadership Expeditions near Saranac, New York, said, "the initial step into a wilderness program brings discomfort to teen and parent alike. Parents have to ask themselves, ‘how much more fear and confusion must you endure before you consider a change?'" Sending a child to wilderness camp brings on a sense of losing control, but "it is actually a healthy searching to reestablish control in the life of your family," Deal said.

Family Camp

Wellspring Family Camp is the world's first weight loss camp for young children and their parents. Children ages 5-13 attend Family Camp accompanied by one or more parents or grandparents for a two-week session or an intensive one-week session.

• Two-week Session starts on July 22
• One-week Sessions start on August 5 and August 18

Learn more about Wellspring Family Camp >>

Art-Start and the Hip-hop Project

Released in theatres just a few months ago, "The Hip-hop Project" puts a unique spin on a familiar style of music. Though hip-hop typically gets negative attention, Chris "Kazi" Rolle believed it could be used to reach kids who were living on the streets or were on the verge of dropping out of high school. The four-year project was captured on film with the support of executive producers Bruce Willis and Queen Latifah, and tells the story of a group of young people whose lives are transformed as a result of their involvement with the project.

Though The Hip-hop Project is getting national press and attention, the program itself is actually part of a larger, non-profit program called Art-Start.

Art-Start began in 1991, when a group of New York artists decided to use their talents to reach out to homeless and "at-risk" kids in the city. By teaching the kids to find and use creative outlets to process their fears, disappointments, and even their traumas and anger, Art-Start gives them the opportunity to be part of something, to make their voices heard and being healing both themselves and their communities.

Learn more about Art-Start and The Hip-Hop Project >>

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