Catholic Charities of West Tennessee Brings Camp Love & Learn to Hickory Hill for the Summer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - June 3, 2013 - PRLog -- Catholic Charities of West Tennessee (CCWTN) today re-launched its Camp Love & Learn, eight week summer program for “at-risk” children at the Catholic Church of the Resurrection in Southeast Memphis. A longtime summer fixture held on the midtown Memphis Catholic Charities campus, the camp moved to Hickory Hill this year thanks to the generosity of the Pastor and people of Resurrection Parish. Virginia Davenport, Camp Director, is excited about this year’s camp stating that, “we are thrilled to be able to offer our campers and their families the wonderful facilities of this parish for our summer camp. During these next eight weeks, we’ll focus our efforts on 70 boys and girls, ages 5 to 10, with a curriculum that is one part academic enrichment – especially in the areas of math and language arts, one part nutrition and one part fun”!

Campers come from fourteen different schools and ten different zip codes across the city. 75% of the children attending the camp live in zip codes where the average household income is below the Memphis City average. “Our goal is to have a diverse, multi-cultural, meaningful camp experience for the children,” said Mike Allen President and CEO of Catholic Charities of West Tennessee. “As I said when I met with our camp staff at orientation last week - at the end of this summer, if we can say that our campers improved on their grade level performance, learned something about proper nutrition, were kept safe and had fun, then we would have had a successful camp – those are our goals,” said Allen.    

This year Catholic Charities of West Tennessee is introducing three new components to the camp. First, through a partnership with Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) and the University of Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) program, the camp will be able to better track outcomes, results and the impact on the children’s lives. Second, a member of CCWTN’s Immigrations Services Program will be onsite at the camp one day per week to work with families of campers who may have need for immigration related counseling services. Finally, the CCWTN mobile food pantry will provide campers and their family’s weekend food packs to bring home on select Friday’s throughout the camp.

“In addition to Catholic Charities USA and the University of Notre Dame, we are grateful to our local partners including the Mid-South Food Bank, Church Health Center and Memphis City Schools Kitchen which are each a significant contributor to our nutrition component,” said Allen

Aimed at helping low income families, the camp is priced at $25 per child per week and includes dedicated grade level academic instruction time, meals, swimming and field trips. Financial aid is available, however all families are expected to contribute something toward their child’s attendance at the camp. The camp is now closed to new enrollees for this year; however CCWTN is still seeking financial support in the form of camper sponsorships. To sponsor a child’s attendance please call Ms. Stacey Sears Director of Development for CCWTN at (901) 722-4733.

About Catholic Charities of West Tennessee

Catholic Charities of West Tennessee is the social services arm of the Catholic Diocese of Memphis. It is one of the largest nonprofit, multi-social service providers in the Mid-South with special emphasis in the areas of homelessness, immigration services, community counseling and emergency services. For more information please visit the agency web site at www.ccwtn.org and at facebook.com/ccwtn.

For more information, please contact Alie Lifsey at alie.lifsey@acc.cdom.org or 901-722-4750.