Spotlight on Atzmayim

Syd Berkman (Rosh Atzmayim): I spent my first two years on staff working with Tikvah. Last year I was a counselor and job coach for Atzmayim, and now I'm Rosh Atzmayim. The Atzmayim program is a vocational program for young adults with special needs. Our job is to teach them vocational skills and independent living skills. The participants get to live in a more independent way here at camp--basically a dorm-style setting. They have to wake themselves up in the morning and get themselves dressed and to services on time. Then we head into town to work at various job sites where the participants essentially have internships. They learn job skills, they learn how to communicate with their coworkers and customers, and they learn how to complete certain job tasks and to be on time.

During the afternoons when we're back at camp, the participants plan programs for themselves and learn how to think through the processes of planning. In the evenings, we participate in those programs and they get free time in the staff lounge. Also, in the afternoons, they have two classes which have been very wonderful for them. They have a class in Jewish living and a class in social skills. In the Jewish living class they learn practical skills that are important in Judaism, such as how to keep kosher and choose what level of kashrut you want to keep depending on where you are, how to have people over for Shabbat dinner, things along those lines. It's been very wonderful and we have wonderful teachers. In the social skills class they have the chance to discuss social skills, such as how to communicate well, how to use the Internet in a proper manner, how to work exercise into your day. They get an opportunity with their teacher to learn a more concrete way to interact socially and take care of themselves. It really helps them to get some ideas straight in their heads and to be able to live independently.

We have seven Atzmayimers working in town and an eighth who is working at camp. The one who works at camp is working in the kitchen and helps out with unloading trucks, organizing different areas of the kitchen and helping with general meal set up. In town, we have participants working at a coffee shop, the Children's Museum, a book store, a grocery store, a clothing store, the library, and a day care center.

From what the particpants and parents have told us and from what we see in our own experiences, the participants really do learn how to be more independent, in terms of how they think and how they act. It gives them an opportunity to take on leadership roles in areas where they have never had that opportunity before. For a lot of the participants, this gives them the chance to show that they can live and work independently so that they have a chance to have a job in the real work or to go off to college. It really gives them an opportunity to have support in a system where they can exert their own independence, but still have someone who is teaching them how to use their independence the right way.

What camp gets out of the Atzmayim program is that the participants also have internships with some of the different activity areas and sometimes with the aidot, if they express interest in that. They help plan programs and they have their own project ideas. Often they help plan a program for a specific aidah. During open omanut (art) time, they help out as an extra set of hands in there. Outside of formal things, they serve as an example for the Tikvah program. A lot of the Tikvah campers are close with the Atzmayim campers because the Atzmayim campers came through the Tikvah program--there's a very beautiful role model relationship between Tikvah and Atzmayim. The Atzmayim are also just great people and the staff love having them around in the staff lounge. They're a great presence to have in camp.