Colorado Heritage Camps

Impact Statement

There is an oft used saying, “How can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you came from?” Imagine not really knowing who you are or where you came from – your roots. That is the fate of every adopted child. Their roots are left behind in far away places, and/or with birth families they will no longer live with. There will always be that hole in their lives – in their very foundation. That’s the main reason why participating in a heritage camp is so valuable. It helps to fill up part of that hole by providing a way to connect with their cultural roots and with other adopted children and families "just like theirs."

In 2007, Colorado Heritage Camps accomplished the following:

1. Provided 10 heritage camps for 931 adoptive families from 40 states in the U.S. and two foreign countries, China and Australia.
2. Recruited 864 program facilitators, including ethnic community volunteers, counselors, professional workshop facilitators, and cultural entertainers to be role models and mentors at camp.
3. Continued the “More Than Me” program designed for middle school campers to give back to their country or culture of birth.
4. Supported 25 volunteer heritage camp directors and over 300 volunteer camp program coordinators.
5. Held the Vietnamese Adoptee Network (VAN) annual conference in conjunction with the Vietnamese Heritage Camp. 400 adoptive parents, adopted children, and adult adoptees attended that combined event.

Every year, the CHC objectives are to:
1. Support the healthy development of adoptive families formed by transracial or transcultural adoption.
2. Provide children and families with a sense of community and individual identity.
3. Help children gain an understanding of their cultural heritage.
4. Help parents gain insight into their children’s birth culture.
5. Create support networks of similarly situated families.
6. Help children gain self-knowledge and cultural identity.
7. Help adoptive parents gain understanding of their children’s unique needs.
8. Help children gain the language and confidence to speak about their adoption.
9. Help children and their parents become globally aware and become good global citizens.

Needs Statement

Colorado Heritage Camps top needs are:
1.Donations for camp scholarships, program costs, marketing costs, camp facility costs, and general operating expenses.
2.Sponsors for camp t-shirts, travel expenses for facilitators, counselor and community volunteer lodging and meal expenses, camp meals, raft trips for teens, children’s program costs, etc.
3.Volunteer adoptive parents to help coordinate camp programs and fundraising events, recruit community volunteers, market and publicize camp.

Background Statement

Colorado Heritage Camps, Inc. was incorporated as a 501 C(3) non-profit, tax exempt organization in 1995. CHC serves as a post adoption resource and advocate for families who have adopted children from other countries or cross-racially within the United States. The organization accomplishes this by facilitating annual heritage camps that provide culturally relevant experiences and adoption support for both the adopted children and their families. The first camp, Korean Heritage Camp, was held in 1992 with 300 participants. That camp alone has grown to over 700 participants in 16 years. Based on the needs and wishes of other adoptive families in Colorado and around the nation, CHC has now expanded to offer ten heritage camps providing culturally relevant experiences for the following cultures:

(Camp:Year Started)
--African/Caribbean: 1999
--Cambodian: 2003
--Chinese:1997
--Chinese Too (a second camp):2004
--Filipino:2000
--Indian/Nepalese: 1994
--Korean:1992
--Latin American: 1998
--Russian/Eastern European/Central Asian (REECA):2000
--Vietnamese: 1999

CHC is the only organization in Colorado offering these heritage camp experiences, and the only one in the nation that offers ten separate camps for adoptive families.

The largest camps are Cambodian, Chinese, Indian/Nepalese, Korean, and Latin American, ranging in size from 400 to 800 participants. The African/Caribbean, Chinese Too, Filipino, REECA, and Vietnamese Heritage Camps range in size from 150 to 375 participants. These family camps are residential and based at the YMCA of the Rockies, Snow Mountain Ranch, over 4 days in the summer. Due to popular demand, the organization added a second Chinese Heritage Camp in 2004, which will annually be held in Denver over a 4-day weekend with approximately 300 participants each year. The 2006 participants in Colorado Heritage Camps included 872 families made up of 1,397 adoptive parents with 1,541 children; plus over 750 volunteers from the various ethnic communities who serve as counselors, workshop facilitators, entertainers, and cultural role models at the camps for a total of nearly 3,700 participants.

Executive Director Statement

It never would have occurred to me or to my husband that by adopting our two children from Korea and India we would be lucky enough to become part of not only their lives, but their cultures of birth. What an invaluable education for anyone to experience, and a true gift for adoptive families. I cannot imagine missing an opportunity to be part of another culture, especially that of my child. To me, the family experience at heritage camp is fundamental, and it is a primary reason why I got involved in founding Colorado Heritage Camps.

When we started this organization 17 years ago it was staffed and run entirely by volunteers, including myself as the Executive Director. Due to steady growth over the years, we have finally come to having a paid ED and two part-time staff. We all work out of our home offices, but we did acquire warehouse space in the past two years to accumulate the camp inventory into one space. With these recent changes, CHC is now better able to manage the organization, plus better serve and assist the camp directors and program coordinators who are all still volunteers.

However, the addition of paid staff and warehouse leases, plus the increased costs of housing counselors and volunteers, and the sheer growth of the camps has put stress on the finances of CHC. Without donations, we would have to raise camp fees substantially, which would then prohibit many of our families from attending, even with camp scholarship opportunities. This is why your donation would mean so much and be put to direct use in helping Colorado Heritage Camps thrive.

I personally feel very humbled by the sheer numbers of adoptive parents and community members who volunteer their time each year to provide these heritage camp experiences for so many families. I know the impact the heritage camps have had on my own family, and now that my children are grown, it is my heartfelt pledge to be sure these experiences continue for many more adoptive families.

Board Chair/President Statement

We are living in a unique time in the United States. Never before in human history have so many children from foreign orphanages been adopted into one country over such a short period of time. Since the early 1990s, over 200,000 children born overseas were adopted by US families. While the majority of international adoptees were younger than 4 years old, about 11% were school age at the time of adoption. In addition, the number of transracial domestic adoptions (children placed with an adoptive family of another race) has grown at an unprecedented rate.

All families formed by adoption have additional needs, and this is especially true of the families served by Colorado Heritage Camps, Inc. Adoptive families with diverse heritages are obvious, and children and parents must continually respond to a variety of questions and responses from society that other families do not face. Often, children adopted internationally may have illnesses uncommon in this country or developmental delays that must be addressed. Even a perfectly healthy child still faces many adjustments: to life in a family versus life in an institution, to a new physical and technological environment, to a new cultural and social milieu, sometimes to a new language or new school settings. The child also needs to build or retain a strong and positive connection to their birth culture as he/she bonds with new family members and develops his/her identity. The parents need information, resources, support, and training to grow with their child. Colorado Heritage Camps meets these needs in a fun, comfortable community environment.

Colorado Heritage Camps, Inc. has continued to grow and to respond to the needs of these families – it has grown from an organization with a single culture camp to one with 10 heritage camps, a spring culture festival, and special presentations throughout the year concerning parenting and adoption issues. Where once this organization could function with just an Executive Director and volunteer board and camp “workers,” this growth has prompted the need for more staff, and some warehouse space. Our challenge is to continue to grow and to meet the expanding needs of our families and keep camp accessible to all those who wish to attend.