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Intro



Welcome to my blog.  It contains stories of my experiences from the past, and related ponderings. 
My career has been built on serving people- a combination of working with at risk and traumatized youth, general population youth, and people with developmental disabilities. I have worked in various camps, in the community, in homes and schools, in group homes, after school programs, day programs, a family shelter, and now at a youth shelter. My stories come from any of these settings. I will go out of my way to ensure the privacy of any individual I mention. Names will be fictitious, and time and location will be absent. 

 I am currently working to start a camp, called Polaris Youth, for youth who are coping with issues of violence such as abuse, bullying, and witnessing crime. My intention is to start it as a monthly adventure program, to serve as a respite away, and as something consistent to look forward to. It is tricky to work an average of 44 hours a week just to keep my apartment, and add in working on camp.... I have an online store at www.dreamspirationbyfern.com. I'm hoping it will start to get enough views, to promote more views, to increase sales, to make me more sustainable so that ultimately, I can reduce my current work-load and focus more on starting the camp. Please check it out- if only for the clicks.

 Thank you for reading. - Fern
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Like Lightning

Another camp. 3 counselors per cabin of 6 or 7 teenage girls. It served a combination of needs. Some kids had developmental disabilities. Some had experienced trauma. In our cabin, three of the girls were autistic. This girl only seemed to say two things: First was, "Number two no touching!" which meant that she had touched something- or more often, someone, roughly, and a staff had caught her. My assumption is that in school, there are a list of rules, and #2 has to do with not touching others. We'd call her name, she'd shout, "Number two no touching!" we'd affirm it, and she'd put her hands down. The other thing I heard her say was, "NoooOooooo!" as she ran off. At this camp, we tried to be flexible with activities. Often, she and I would spend free-time, skipping and galloping a quarter mile across camp, then skipping and galloping a quarter mile back. She loved it. What she hated, it seems, was swimming. It took three attempts at getti...
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Music in the Woods

When I was a kid, "secret" trails and hideaways inspired me. Flash forward to age 19, my first summer working at camp. The summer was hot. I had the 6 and 7 year-olds in my cabin. We had several days straight, where the weather hovered between 115 and 121 degrees, F. As per camp tradition, after lunch each day, every group went to its' cabin, for "Siesta," or rest-time. But kids are restless, bored, and prone to whining. And the cabins weren't very comfortable in the middle of the day. I had noticed that the coolest place to be was always in the ravine, across camp from our cabin. So I came up with a plan. On a handful of breaks on the first couple days, I borrowed the hedge clippers, and walked over to where the wilderness (chaparral) began, close to our cabin. There was no trail, so I created one - narrow and short, cutting away some shrubbery so it would feel like a hideaway. I told my girls that I was taking them on a secret trail (though I had let t...
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