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Camp Howe is a private, independent, non profit organization with a long tradition of providing a 4-H based camp experience to youngsters each summer. Camp Howe receives no state or county funding, but does incorporate many aspects of �4-H� via the federally, state, and county supported UMass Extension and its Massachusetts 4-H Program. Together, we strive to provide youth with fun, safe, and educational experiences based on 4-H values. Children do not have to be, or are under no obligation to become, 4-H members to attend Camp Howe. Whether at the club level (provided by the Massachusetts 4-H Program) or at Camp Howe, youth learn through experiential or �hands-on� learning and gain valuable life skills needed to be successful - both as children and as adults. These skills include communication, decision-making, problem solving, sharing and conflict resolution. They gain these skills at Camp Howe from participating traditional and contemporary camp activities, social interaction with other children & staff, and through other inherent experiences uniquely found at summer camp. Camp Howe�s joint mission with 4-H is to create supportive environments for culturally diverse youth and adults to reach their fullest potential by: * providing a safe, enjoyable outdoor learning experience, * providing opportunities to develop leadership, social and group living skills while fostering, creativity, independence and responsibility, * offering a choice of age appropriate programs that build confidence and self-esteem, * encouraging an understanding and respect for the environment, animals, agriculture, and natural resources, * building an appreciation and acceptance of the differences in people, and * developing a caring community. In keeping with the 4-H mission, Camp Howe shares the goal: * to have fun, * to learn about the outdoors, * to learn to live, work and play with others, * to learn self-reliance, * to learn to get along away from home, * to increase confidence and self-esteem, * to develop some new skills and interests. The most readily identifiable educational objectives for Camp Howe are the processes related to the following five life-skill areas: * Self-Understanding - acquiring secondary skills, which support the development of self and which aid others in pursuit of personal potential; * Communicating - artfully exchanging thoughts or information verbally and non- verbally to enhance cooperation and learning; * Decision-Making - recognizing life as a sequence of events, a pattern of steps, or a progression of challenges that require choices at each level; learning to learn; using the scientific method; fostering a spirit of inquiry to lead one around, over, or through obstacles encountered; * Managing Resources - using acquired knowledge to contribute to humanism while preserving and protecting the natural environment; * Coping - contending with difficulties which may arise unexpectedly in our changing environments and learning to act in order to survive those challenges without physical, social, or psychological suffering and with possibilities for growth in any or all of those areas.
