2015 DoD Camp Grant

Kentucky’s military family camps have been offered for the past 6 years, winning an award for “Kentucky Outstanding Extension Project Award” in 2010 through the Kentucky Association of State Extension Professionals and a nomination for the 2014 “Epsilon Sigma Phi Team Achievement Award.” Slots were completely full for both our 2014 family camps in less than 3 weeks after registration began. Each year, Kentucky collects additional pre- and post-data to guide future camp programs. Evaluations consistently reveal that families view the camps as helpful and provide a route for families to regain focus on each other, improve communication and teamwork skills and build a wider system of support and resources. Sharing of results from our camp resulted in the Kentucky SEED Project (System to Enhance Early Development) recently allocating $10,000 to our camp team from a SAMHSA cooperative agreement to facilitate a 2015 military family camp that will focus on military families with children birth to 5 years of age. This camp will be held in June 2015 at the Robinson Forest facility owned by UK College of Agriculture. This camp will nicely compliment the 2 family camps included in this proposal that will focus on families with school-age children.