Summer Camps

Since 2013, CCATE has offered a three-week summer day camp in July at no cost (donations only) with the support of volunteer teachers, university and college interns, individual donors, and community partners. Each summer our camp serves an average of 60 students in grades 2-12 from Norristown and other municipalities in Montgomery County. Students participate in classes in environmental science, gardening, cooking, art, fitness, filmmaking, poetry, youth participatory action research, and journalism. In addition to classes, students attend weekly local field trips and enjoy CCATE’s green space and local parks in Norristown.

Projects developed during Summer Camps in previous years have included the making of award-winning animated, narrative and documentary films, a bilingual Mexican cookbook, the development of edible and rain gardens in collaboration with The Food Trust and the John James Audubon Society, a volume of bilingual poetry, and a map-making project based on students’ Latino roots and heritage.

Since 2018, camp themes have included Love and Peace (2022), Reconstructing Ourselves with Empathy (2021), CCATE in Motion (2020), The Immigrant Village (2019), and Caring for Our Environment (2018).

Summer High School Leadership Institute

July 2022 marked the inauguration of CCATE’s first annual high school leadership institute (HSLI) for students entering Grades 9-12. The goals of this week-long intensive program are for 15 high school students to develop leadership skills, build community, explore post-secondary options including career and college preparation and planning, and develop skills for supporting mental health, self-care, and healthy relationships. The institute includes college visits, career workshops with local professionals and community members, and daily small group and one-on-one work with university undergraduate and graduate students.

Collaborative Summer Program Planning

Each June, CCATE brings together a group of over 30 volunteers, interns, and CCATE community members of all ages to begin a collaborative planning process for its summer programs. Based on group member’s talents, skills and interests, together they develop summer camp themes and codesign and cocreate summer curricula for camp, and since 2022, for the high school leadership institute.

For more details on CCATE summer programming, send an email to contact@ccate.org.