Jennifer Branning
Acting Chief Probation Officer
Lassen County Probation Department
The 5th annual Foster Youth Summit was a GREAT success. Plumas, Trinity and Lassen Counties foster youth enjoyed a fun filled weekend at Camp Ronald McDonald at Eagle Lake.
The goal of this camp is to bring young people placed into foster care together with their families, foster families or supportive adult role models. It was a weekend for outdoor activities and learning about staying motivated in life, making goals, reaching those goals, building meaningful relationships with adults and peers, developing self-confidence, how to be safe and useful skills for their journey to being successful in life. They participated in swimming, biking and archery.
The educational sessions included: Smart Start by Shaun Simmons California Highway Patrol, teaching everyone how to be safe on the road; Let’s Move by Eric Perry, about getting motivated to be successful and staying motivated no matter what barriers life throws in your way; Self-Care for caregivers to stay healthy while caring for others; Fire Safety by Jim Uruburu, taught everyone safety skills while dealing with fires and how to avoid them; Animal Personalities by Heather Ciazo, for personality traits we all have and how to communicate with each other; Financial Success by Susan Ward, on balancing a checkbook and how to make a budget you can stick to; Protect Yourself by Lassen County Public Health, from sexually transmitted infections and safe sex practices.
The camp ended with keynote speaker and author, Jaiya John, who inspired and empowered those in attendance to love and respect themselves for the individuals they are and not to be afraid of life.
This camp was made possible by a collaborative effort with Plumas and Lassen County employees from Independent Living Programs, Kinship Education Programs, Offices of Education, Child Welfare Agencies, Probation Departments and Foster Youth Services.
All foster youth walked away with a camp gift to support their educational endeavors and school supplies. Gifts and supplies were purchased locally from Customer Talk, Walmart and Big Five. Thanks to everyone’s support in making this an amazing camp experience.
