NEW YORK — On World Mental Health Day, which aims to raise awareness of mental health issues and mobilize action for solutions, Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) is providing resources to support the well-being of staff, campers, and their families. 

Over the past five years, FJC’s flagship mental health initiative, Yedid Nefesh, has enabled more than 100 day and overnight camps to hire mental health professionals, train counselors, integrate wellness programming, and more. This summer, camps allocated extra resources and care to support Israeli staff and campers, such as hiring Hebrew-speaking therapists. Yedid Nefesh mental health professionals coach counselors and staff, and FJC’s research demonstrates that this kind of training for staff leads to better support for campers. 96% of overnight camper families believe their camp supported their child’s mental, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being — a statistic that FJC’s annual Camper Satisfaction Insights surveys show has steadily climbed over the past few years.

“Amid a long-term rise in mental health challenges for young people and new trauma and grief in the wake of October 7th, FJC is committed to ensuring every member of the camp community has the support they need to thrive,” said Jeremy J. Fingerman, CEO of Foundation for Jewish Camp. “On World Mental Health Day, FJC is proud of all that our network of camps and mental health professionals do to address mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health.” 

Thanks to an influx of resources, Jewish summer camps are taking an increasingly active role in supporting the camp community not just during the summer but also throughout the year. A growing cadre of camps are retaining mental health professionals part- or full-time even after summer is over, providing workshops for parents or speaking to campers in the run-up to camp.

“When we first opened up applications for grants to support mental health, more than 90 camps applied for just 30 spots,” said Jill Goldstein Smith, Director, Programs at Foundation for Jewish Camp. “The groundswell of interest spoke to an urgent need. We’re thrilled that thanks to the generosity of The Marcus Foundation and other partners, we’ve since been able to expand financial and programmatic support to more than 100 day and overnight camps. Moving forward, we’ll need new, additional partnerships so that we can serve more camps and meet rising mental health needs.” 

In addition to The Marcus Foundation, FJC has received support from UJA-Federation of New York, The Jewish Communal Fund of New York, and The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles for its Yedid Nefesh initiative. 

FJC has spearheaded innovative approaches to ensure camps can hire enough qualified professionals despite a worldwide shortage of youth-serving mental health practitioners. The Mental Health Graduate Student Fellowship, for example, builds a pipeline of qualified professionals at Jewish camps by tapping into the pool of talent looking for summer opportunities to expand their skills through work in the field.

FJC’s 2024 Leaders Assembly, which will take place December 9th to December 11th in Chicago, will convene camp mental health professionals in-person, and feature close to 20 sessions focused on mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health — including deep-dive trainings, peer-led conversations, camp-specific research practicums, and more.

About Foundation for Jewish Camp 

FJC advocates for over 300 day and overnight camps that provide nearly 180,000 campers and counselors each summer with a meaningful, personal, and lifelong connection to Judaism. FJC is the only public 501(c)(3) charitable organization solely focused on Jewish camp. jewishcamp.org

Media Contact
agoldstein@ninetywest.com for Foundation for Jewish Camp

Asking questions is a core aspect of Jewish tradition and inquiring about those in our community helps us to better serve them. Camps use many systems and processes for gathering information about campers and staff prior to arrival at camp so programming can be tailored to better to support them in having an excellent experience.  

This question bank lists some common and not-so-common questions for camps to consider asking in an effort to better support the mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health of campers and staff. In some cases, questions listed here may already be incorporated into your camp’s intake process elsewhere – and we encourage efficiency where possible (for the sake of camp staff as well as registering families). Some questions may be explicitly related to mental health, and others may not be so obvious or may fall under multiple categories (including but not limited to behavior, physical health, etc.). 

This list is by no means exhaustive, and there are some duplicative options to allow camps to pick and choose as they see fit for their community and needs. It is not intended to be copy-and-pasted without consideration, and we highly encourage adaptation. 

While this resource focuses on campers, we understand the importance of supporting staff as well. We hope these questions may spark ideas for how to frame conversations with staff to build self-awareness and encourage open communication with their supervisor based on strengths and growth opportunities.

For questions, or to share additions as this is a living resource, please reach out to jill@jewishcamp.org.  

We wish you a wonderful summer of supporting MESSH and all those in your camp community, 

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE QUESTION BANK

This project is possible through the generosity of The Marcus Foundation as part of the Yedid Nefesh initiative. We are grateful to the 30+ day and overnight camps who shared their intake questionnaires and survey forms with us through the Yedid Nefesh initiative and other avenues. The questions included here were reviewed by a licensed clinical social worker with a history of leading community care at Jewish camp, as well as reviewed by members of the Yedid Nefesh Advisory Group, including camp professionals and mental health experts