When disaster strikes, this free day camp provides an outlet for kids

Thousands of Los Angeles residents have been displaced since fires began raging in parts of the city last week.

While this is a difficult time for everyone, it can be particularly challenging for young kids. Not only are they facing the devastation of losing their homes, in some cases, they’ve also lost routine spaces like school. Plus — simply put — the adults are likely on edge.

On a recent episode of LAist 89.3's daily news show, AirTalk, host Larry Mantle talked with Jenni Silverstein, a licensed clinical social worker, and Ozzie Baron, deputy director and co-founder of Project:Camp, which offers free day-camps to children in disaster zones.

When disaster strikes

This is not Project:Camp’s first rodeo with a natural disaster.

“We can pop up a day camp anywhere in the country in about 48 hours,” Baron said.

The nonprofit launched in L.A. in 2018, but has become a national organization. It operated out of five states last year, responding to different disasters, including tornadoes and Hurricanes Helene in North Carolina and Milton in Florida. The camp also helped families during the Maui Wildfires in 2023.

The scale of their camps depends on the scale of the disaster. Baron calls L.A.’s current situation “a truly titanic event.”

“So we are taking a regional approach to this,” he said. We opened another camp up in Santa Barbara [Wednesday] for families who went north when they evacuated, and we are actively looking for more sites on the east and west sides of L.A. as well as down south to Orange County. We’re even talking to people as far south as San Diego.”

In order to process, kids need to feel safe

The free day camp is for children ages 6 to 16 and runs between about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Snacks and lunch are provided as well as a range of activities. The key component: volunteers are trained to be trauma-informed, meaning the main goal is to make sure the kids know they're safe.

“While kids are having fun and getting that sense of routine and are going through a day of programming designed to help them understand and process what they've been through, the grownups, the adults, the parents, can do the hard tasks that they need to do,” Baron said.

Advice for parents

Silverstein, the licensed clinical social worker, said routine is important for kids and disasters like this mean throwing routine out the window. But something like Project:Camp or other structured activities can help. It’s important to also minimize kids’ exposure to adult conversations and media right now.

One of her biggest pieces of advice though: “When kids are disrupted and distressed, it often comes out in behaviors and to really just be able to remember that those behaviors are communicating their distress and to have as much patience as we can muster in responding to them."

For additional resources on how to help your child through natural disasters like the L.A. fires you can go to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

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