The Original Article Published on The New York Jewish Week

As more Jewish camps across the country expand their programs to welcome campers of all abilities, a new online resource has been created in a partnership between the Foundation For Jewish Camp and the Ramah Camping Movement. The “Inclusion Training Guide for Jewish Summer Camps” is a comprehensive guide that camps are able to download and use for staff training.

It contains overviews of different types of disabilities, philosophies of inclusion and practical strategies for working with campers of all abilities. It also includes sample programs of how to teach inclusion to a whole camp — making every camper aware that disabilities can be both visible and invisible and helping to make camp culture more sensitive to differences among campers.