Children's Association for Maximum Potential, Inc.

Since 1979, Children's Association for Maximum Potential (CAMP) has provided recreational programming for individuals, aged 5 - 50, with developmental, intellectual, medical, behavioral, and physical disabilities. Many of the individuals who attend CAMP do not have the option to go to other camps, including "special needs camps", due to the severity of their disability or medical condition. We believe that “CAMP is for the camper" and our goal is to help every camper reach their maximum potential and know what it means to live life without being defined by a disability.

Our goals fall into three primary categories:
1. Recreation opportunities year-round for over individuals with special needs.
2. Respite opportunities year-round for families and caregivers.
3. Education opportunities for the community in the form of volunteer opportunities for high-school and adults, hands-on continuing education opportunities for healthcare professionals, and partnerships with other non-profits in the area to serve the community at large.

As a result of the year-round and summer programs, campers garner independence, self-confidence, and encouragement through fun recreational activities and social interactions, while parents and siblings receive a break from routine around-the-clock care of their family member. The success of each program is based on adapted activities that allow participants to experience a sense of mobility and independence.

To strengthen and inspire campers while offering much needed respite for their families, CAMP's primary program strategies are broken into two categories: Summer Programs and School-Year Programs. Year-round, CAMP programs alleviate medical, physical, developmental, social, and intellectual barriers for campers by adapting all of its activities to allow full participation. As a result of the year-round and summer programs, campers garner independence, self-confidence, and encouragement through medically safe recreational activities and social interactions, while parents and siblings receive a break from routine around-the-clock care of their family member.

Summer programs consist of nine distinct one-week residential sessions at our 55-acre, 400+ bed capacity camp in the Texas Hill Country. Here, individuals participate in traditional camping activities such as swimming, horseback riding, canoeing, archery, outdoor cooking, paintball, music recreation, nature discovery, arts & crafts, karaoke, and so much more.

School-year programs consist of nine monthly weekend camps (Respite Weekends, held at Camp CAMP) designed much like the summer camp program, nine monthly evening events (Parent’s Night Out, held at our offices on Lackland AFB) that offer fun and safe enrichment activities for children with special needs, and their siblings, while their parents receive respite from child care responsibilities, nine monthly teen and adult outings (Teen and Adult Day Adventure, held throughout the Greater San Antonio area) that offer individuals with special needs the ability to socialize and enjoy age appropriate recreation at sporting events, amusement parks, museums, and festivals, and lastly, unique family retreats (Family Weekends held at Camp CAMP) for 12-14 families on the same weekend, each with a family member who has special needs.

All programs are designed for our campers to participate in group activities and can easily be adapted to meet the needs of each camper. Through a 1:1 camper to counselor ratio, CAMP maximizes opportunities for success. Because each camper comes to CAMP with different goals in mind, we strive to individualize camper experiences so campers can successfully achieve their goals.

CAMP employs 21 permanent staff and approximately 70 summer staff to assist with operations and programming. It’s important to note the longevity of our permanent staff, with an average number of years of service just over ten years, and 40% of the team having served longer than ten years. CAMP’s leadership team has spent more than eleven years overseeing CAMP’s programs and administration, and collectively the permanent staff have over 100 years of experience in the field.

CAMP’s 2019 Board of Directors consisted of 16 active members who meet six times annually in the months of January, March, May, July, September, and November. The Board actively assists with annual fundraising, social media initiatives, participation in major donor site visits, recruitment of new board members, relationship cultivation, advocacy, awareness, and governance.

During the 2019 program year, 1,515 volunteers dedicated 86,870 hours of service, while 208 Health Care volunteers gave 16,856 hours of service and earned 743 continuing education hours. Given that the majority of our volunteers are young, turnover is inevitable as this group graduates from high school or college. However, we average a summer retention rate of approximately of 37.7% annually. Volunteers at CAMP are students, teachers, business owners, community leaders, doctors, nurses, and other professionals. While the majority of our volunteers are individuals, we frequently have groups volunteer from local businesses, community organizations, schools, churches, as well as universities and colleges (both local and nationally).

Collaborations are central to CAMP’s mission and ensure we can provide the intense medical care, including 24-hour medical supervision, our medically fragile campers require in order to participate. Health care collaborations include Resident and/or Fellow Programs from University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, UT Austin, Joint Base San Antonio (Lackland, Ft. Sam Houston), Madigan Army Base, and Wright Patterson Air Force Base; nursing student programs from Baptist Health Systems, University Health Systems, Hallmark University, South University (Austin), Texas A&M (Corpus Christi),; Respiratory Therapist programs from UT Health Science Center and St. Phillips College; and Pharmacy Students from University of Houston, University of Texas Austin, and A&M Kingsville. CAMP also works in unison with several referral sources within the San Antonio special needs community, including but not limited to Autism Lifeline Links, The Arc of San Antonio, Respite Care of San Antonio, Any Baby Can, TEAMability, Kinetic Kids San Antonio, and Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG).

Children's Association for Maximum Potential (CAMP) began in 1979 when a group of US Air Force pediatricians, Dr. Chris Plauche Johnson, Dr. Fred McCurdy, and Dr. Robert de Lemos, along with other health professionals brought 32 children with special needs together for a weekend camp. These campers were not accepted to other camps – even those for children with special needs – due to the severity of their medical conditions or disabilities. CAMP incorporated in 1980 and held camps at rented facilities during its first ten years. In 1989 CAMP purchased an old church camp facility and began retrofitting and adapting it to meet the needs of its campers. Today, CAMP's main purpose remains to help campers reach their maximum potential, and has grown to serving well over 1,000 individuals with special needs every year.

What makes CAMP unique is our ability to serve individuals with special needs who are not eligible to apply, or be accepted by, other camps. Our 1:1 camper to counselor ratio and volunteer medical staff are key to providing a safe and fun-filled experience for individuals with special needs. CAMP is the only organization providing recreational opportunities of this scale to this very special and fragile population in Texas.

CAMP's sustainability and success is due to its culture that emphasizes experienced and committed staff, recruiting energized and generous board members, training extraordinary teen and young adult volunteers, and collaboration within the medical profession to provide first class volunteer medical staff. At CAMP, we strive to be one of the best nonprofit agencies in our industry, earning the confidence and financial support extended by the philanthropic community.

CAMP's vision for the next five years is to enhance and expand programs, improve facilities, capitalize on talent to meet organizational needs, and improve a marketing strategy to engage donors and alumni. We look forward to strengthening and inspiring even more individuals in the future!