Summer 2023Summer 2023 camper applications are now closed
We are excited to welcome youth from across the United States.
Who: Current 9th-11th graders from across the United States
Where: Maine, United States
When: July 9-23, 2023
Our in-person Camp program invites you to spend two weeks on the shores of Pleasant Lake in Otisfield, Maine. At Camp you will have the opportunity to live with and learn from other high-schoolers who have different backgrounds, experiences, and identities from your own as you take part in camp activities, dialogue, and action-oriented learning. This program is intended for youth who have NOT attended an intensive Seeds of Peace program before. We also welcome a small group of returning campers to participate in our Peer Support program (youth who have previously participated in an intensive Seeds of Peace leadership program).
Program Overview
All Seeds of Peace programs are rooted in dialogue, community, leadership, and action-taking. Our in-person Camp program invites you to spend two weeks at a summer camp where you will have the opportunity to live with and learn from other high-schoolers from different backgrounds, experiences, and identities from your own.
In addition to playing sports, enjoying the waterfront, participating in group-building activities, and expressing yourself through our dynamic arts program, you will participate in a dialogue program almost every day where you can explore your experiences, stories, and realities of your identity and community. Topics that often come up in dialogue are centered around race, gender, religion, power, privilege, socio-economic status, and more.
You will also participate in our community-action program centered around leadership and what it means to turn your ideas into action when you return home. Following your time at Camp, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in year-round programs in your home communities. These programs and meet-ups will support you in continuing to develop your leadership and change-making skills, deepen your understanding of the world around you, and build on the relationships that you started making at Camp while exposing you to new relationships with young people from all of our regions around the world, including the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe and United States.
Program Components
Dialogue – We facilitate collective narrative-building where young people of different identities can tell their own story, express the unique perspective they hold with openness and honesty, listen to others do the same, and therefore deepen their understandings of lived experiences outside of their own. In our almost daily dialogue sessions, youth will participate in courageous conversations with people from different backgrounds—youth with different racial identities, gender identities, religious backgrounds, economic backgrounds, and different political views.
Community – Through participation in our programs, youth engage meaningfully with peers, caring adults, and mentors of all ages who create an ecosystem of support and solidarity across lines of difference as they navigate the uncertainty, challenge, and resistance that often accompany change-making pursuits. During their time at Camp, youth create traditions together while supported by their peers, caring adults, and mentors of all ages. Youth participate in daily opening circles, closing circles with their bunks, and build understanding and cooperation with one another through group activities, including arts, music, and athletics.
Leadership Skills – We train youth in critical skills that they can use when engaging with difference, tackling resistance to change, and gaining broader influence and support. We focus on communication and conflict resolution, self-awareness and personal reflection, activism, and civic engagement. As youth become older and programs become more rigorous, we expand on these skills to include conflict dynamics, cultural competency, negotiation and diplomacy, policy formulation, and a deeper understanding of current global issues.
Action-Taking – We mobilize youth to create real, tangible change in their communities through mentorship and structured support that is both individual and collective. Our Community Action program at camp includes workshops that match the themes we discuss in dialogue and links youth with the adult educators from their communities who are also going through a camp experience. These programs will support youth in planning and leading projects to create change in their communities after Camp.