camper care specialists
Provide emotional and behavioral support to campers, especially those who are anxious, overwhelmed, homesick, or in crisis. You'll be a calm, steady presence who knows when to offer comfort and when to escalate to qualified professionals.
What you'll do
Stay calm and regulated: Remain grounded and reassuring when a camper is panicking, crying, angry, or overwhelmed. Don't take behavior personally, and "lend" your calm to a struggling young person. Treat behavior as communication, and avoid shaming, threatening, arguing, or forcing a camper to "calm down." Use language that promotes safety, dignity, and choice.
De-escalate early: Recognize escalation early, reduce stimulation, give physical space, move the camper to a quieter area, and bring in more support when needed. Tell the difference between what emotional support can handle and what needs immediate clinical or medical help.
Support anxiety and panic: Recognize the signs of anxiety and panic attacks, and use grounding, breathing, sensory regulation, reassurance, and simple choices.
Manage overstimulation: In an arts camp full of noise, crowds, materials, smells, and performances, spot when a camper needs a sensory break, reduced demands, water, food, quiet, movement, or time away from the group.
Ease homesickness: Support campers who miss home without immediately treating it as a reason to go home. Help them build routines, connect with peers, and identify trusted adults, and notice when homesickness becomes significant anxiety or affects daily functioning.
Build relationships: Be warm, approachable, and nonjudgmental, adapting your communication style to different ages while keeping professional boundaries.
Respond to safety concerns: Recognize warning signs of self-harm and suicide risk and respond immediately. Never promise secrecy when a camper discloses self-harm or suicidal thoughts. Notify the designated supervisor or health professional and activate the chain of command and emergency procedures. Don't leave a camper alone during an imminent safety concern unless the emergency protocol or a qualified responder directs it. Document and report every disclosure or incident per camp policy.
Know your scope: Understand the difference between self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and emotional dysregulation, and escalate any possible suicide risk. Don't conduct informal suicide-risk assessments unless you have the professional training and it's explicitly part of your role. Risk assessment and clinical treatment belong to qualified professionals.
What we're looking for
Strongly recommended training:
CPR/First Aid
Youth Mental Health First Aid
Suicide prevention/intervention
Crisis Prevention & Intervention (CPI) or comparable de-escalation training
Nonviolent crisis intervention
Child and adolescent development
Recognizing anxiety and panic
Self-harm awareness
Mandatory reporting/child protection
Camp-specific emergency procedures and incident documentation
Personal qualities: Calm, compassionate, observant, emotionally mature, firm when necessary, excellent at boundaries, comfortable with crisis, nonjudgmental, highly communicative, with strong emotional regulation