Statements

Mission

Instilling inspiration and empowerment while enhancing the lives of children with serious illnesses.

Background

The Center for Courageous (CCK) is a year-round medical camp founded in 2004. One of our founding principles is that the children and families who attend CCK do so free of charge. Children who attend The Center for Courageous Kids come from a culture of dependency and isolation, which negatively impacts achievement of growth and developmental milestones. For this reason, CCK created a program that addresses the current needs of the medically complex pediatric population. Our program provides the campers an opportunity to experience normalcy through interaction with peers who share the same health condition and learn self-care through instruction from the medical team. We offer two programs at The Center for Courageous Kids. The first is traditional overnight weekly summer camp experiences (up to 9 total). Each weekly session provides lodging, food, and activities for up to 128 campers. The second program we offer is Family Retreats, during which the camper and their family attend camp for an entire weekend. We offer Family Retreats during the year with each weekend retreat serving up to 32 families. Both programs are offered to a variety of illness groups with each session tailored to a specific illness or disability.

Impact

While we ensure that our campers are having fun, we are also dedicated to creating an environment that fosters opportunities for making excellent choices, creating and sustaining healthy relationships with peers, and building personal confidence to work through challenges and achieve personal goals. These are the kinds of life learning experiences a child can expect to reach at camp: Decision Making: Choosing between many options over the course of their stay; Team Work: Being a teammate and working with others towards common goals; Expanding Horizons: Interacting with people of different backgrounds during new and different activities; Creative Expression: Opportunities to perform in front of groups; Individualism: Opportunities to express their opinions; Serving: Learning to share resources with fellow campers and compromising; Confidence and Self-Esteem: Practicing supervised independence; Leadership Skills: Opportunities to lead within their lodges; Experiencing Success: Competing in a healthy environment. Our commitment is to ensure that our campers have life learning experiences that they can keep with them as they grow.

Needs

Increase the number of children and illness groups we serve
Update our medical equipment
Increase funding so we can continue to offer our services free of charge to these children and families
Expand our programs and infrastructure
Equipment and general maintenance needs

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Human Services  - Children's and Youth Services
Secondary Category:	Youth Development  - Youth Development Programs
Tertiary Category:	-

Areas Served

The Center for Courageous Kids has served children from 45 states and 13 countries. Our largest number of campers have come from the states of Tennessee and Kentucky.

National

Statewide

Local

International