ABOUT MATT TARVER-WAHLQUIST:
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist relocated with his family to Michigan and became Executive Director of Washtenaw Camp Placement in January 2023. He was previously Executive Director of Literacy Connects in Tucson, Arizona, prior to which he served as the Executive Director of The Arc San Francisco, a developmental disabilities services organization. Between the San Francisco Bay Area, Arizona, and now Michigan, Tarver-Wahlquist brings 20 years of nonprofit experience to Washtenaw Camp Placement. Tarver-Wahlquist has a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Dartmouth College and a certificate in Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management from the Harvard Business School.
RESOURCES:
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TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and I'm David Fair. We are approaching summer and the end of the kids' school year. And for a good number of children, that means they're getting to ready to go to one camp or another. Now, for those residing in lower-income areas, those opportunities are much harder to come by. Welcome to this week's exploration of equity and opportunity in our community. On Washtenaw United today, we're going to explore the opportunity to go sleepaway camp for kids who, without some financial help and assistance, would not be able to participate. Our guest today is Matt Tarver-Wahlquist, and he serves as executive director of Washtenaw Camp Placement. And nice to talk with you again, Matt!
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist: Thank you, Dave! It's wonderful to be back talking to you!
David Fair: Now, I'm not sure that when we begin a conversation on camping that among the first thing that comes to people's mind is the issue of equity. How is the work your organization doing a part of the community solution to inequity?
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist: Well, the first thing to understand, Dave, is that going away to summer camp, while it is a really fun thing, it's not a trivial thing. It actually matters. It actually has real, concrete, measurable benefit to the children who go. You know, kids that go to camp build social-emotional skills. They have better academic performance. They have a better success later in life. And, as you alluded to in your introduction, camp costs money, and it can be cost-prohibitive for parents. And so, most kids that get to go to camp are children that already have a certain level of privilege and already have access to all sorts of opportunity. And so. The growth they experience at camp is something that's layered upon all the other opportunities appropriate yet. And children that experience economic hardship and aren't able to attend camp then aren't able to experience this kind of growth that can really set them on a really interesting, new, and amazing path in life.
David Fair: Now, this is a really interesting time to work with the mission of eliminating inequality, discrimination, and racism. You have a federal administration declaring that any DEI measure is inherently discriminatory in and of itself and should be done away with. Has Washtenaw Camp Placement felt any of the pressure to change its mission statement or its work ideology?
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist: We have not. I mean, I guess given for circumstances now, i'd say we are fortunate, unlike a lot of my nonprofit colleagues in Washtenaw camps, we don't receive any federal funding. And therefore, we're not under the kind of pressures that a lot of my colleagues are under. We focus on children and youth that experience economic hardship. And that happens to be a very diverse group of kids. About 81% of the kids that we serve are people who identify as people of color. And at this point, we certainly are not going to deviate from that mission. Our point is to give kids who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to experience this great growth. And at this point, we haven't felt any repercussions from this group chaos happening at the federal level. But the year is still young. The administration is still young. So, we're bracing ourselves for challenges ahead, but, at this point, we're able to really focus on our mission and get those kids to camp.
David Fair: Yeah, it seems like word of the month is "uncertainty." WEMU's Washtenaw United conversation with Matt Tarver-Wahlquist continues on 89.1 WEMU. Matt is executive director of Washtenaw Camp Placement. And let's talk about the kids. How many do you plan to fund for sleepaway camp this coming summer?
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist: This coming summer, we are sending 134 kids for a total of 179 weeks of camp. So, quite a few of the kids are actually going on a two-week camp experience, and the others are going to be going for one week. So, we are in the process now of finalizing those placements and getting the paperwork and getting the families prepared. Next month, we're going to have an orientation session for all the kids we're sending, and we're going to be distributing sleeping bags and other equipment that you need to bring the camp, while we have to work closely with our camp partners on transportation and getting all these families ready to go.
David Fair: 134 kids--that is a lot, particularly as we've talked about how expensive it can be. I think I saw some camp advertisements a short while ago for sleepaway camp, and the price ranges were between $650 and $1000 for the week. That's just not cheap. How do the partnerships you've established help keep prices down, so you can send as many kids as possible?
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist: Well, with the camps that we partner with, six YMCA camps around the state of Michigan, we do have agreements with them for reduced tuition. So, the kids that we send--we pay their tuition, but the tuition that the camps charge us are anywhere from a 40 to 60% discount. So, we are able to send, in essence, twice as many kids per dollar to go to camp. And the rest of the year, Dave, what we do is we reach out to the community and we raise funds to be able to send those kids. Essentially, the more money we raise, the more kids we can send. This year, we're sending 134, and, next year, we hope to send more.
David Fair: At the beginning, you mentioned some of the benefits of the kids going to sleepaway camp, among them greater self-worth and confidence and coming back and having greater academic success. For many of these kids, it's a first extended connection to nature. What do you find they're bringing home from that part of the experience?
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist: You're absolutely right! And what they bring home and what we really hope for them to bring home is to really have their minds blown, because these are kids who, although we live in Michigan, you look at the map, we are surrounded by water, a lot of these kids have never swam in a lake or a river in Michigan, let alone at the night sky with no light pollution and see the absolute mind-blowing grandeur of the Milky Way the way it's meant to be seen or sat around the campfire and sang songs, or ridden a horse, or climbed a tree, or done archery, chameleon and ropes courses. These are all things that just are not part of their daily life, and it's just opening up whole new horizons of appreciation of nature. And they get to bring all of that home with them. And one thing, Dave, that they don't bring with them to camp is their phone and their tablet. And so, it's also just a break. I mean, it is impossible for any of us to extricate ourselves from our technology. I can't do it unless it were kind of forced upon me. And this is a chance for the kids to get a whole one to two weeks away to do that, to see these kids, it's really something, Dave, for kids that are going away to camp for the first time. We're there with them when they get on that bus to go away for the week. A lot of them have never been away from home. They've certainly never done an experience like this. And the kids are really quiet, and they're often pretty nervous. And then, we're there when the bus drops them off a week or two weeks later, and it's just a party on that bus. The kids are raucous and smiling and talking to new friendm and the parents report to us changes they see in their kids And it's just a week. And it can really change everything! And that's something that so exciting about this program is that it's such an efficient way to just show a kid something about themselves they didn't know was there.
David Fair: Once again, we're talking with Washtenaw Camp Placement Executive Director Matthew Tarver-Wahlquist on WEMU's Washtenaw United. And have you found that there is a change in self-perception--self-identity--once a child has the opportunity to exist outside of the family unit at home? [
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist: That's really the whole reason we do it. It's to affect real change--real change in themselves, which leads to a real change of the community. And we have plenty of anecdotal evidence pointing to that when we talk to kids afterwards and interview them and hear about the way they overcame their fear of climbing this rope or other experiences. But also, there's data backing it up on a larger scale that shows that camp really does provides concrete benefits to the kids. What one parent said that her kid, I'm not sure if I believe this because I have kids, but she said her kid was doing chores! Suddenly, he was saying yes to the chores when he got back from camp, so just this added positivity, this added level of confidence. And the way that we recruit these kids, David, is we reach out to the school districts and the community organizations. And we say, "Refer kids to us, kids who you think would really benefit from this experience." And these school social workers will write to us and say--we'll say it's you, Dave--"Dave is a great kid! He's really shy. He doesn't have a lot of opportunity. He doesn't have a lot of confidence. But I think if he were an environment like this, he would have a chance to really shine!" And that's what we're looking for!
David Fair: Well, you mentioned 134 kids going this year. What is the goal to potentially expand for next year?
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist: Well, we will have to see A) how the camp costs go because, every year, there's slight inflation there; B) how the economy does, David, because we rely on institutional funders and individual donors, and if there's economic uncertainty out there, that could impact giving. But that being said, when times are hard, people also can prioritize their giving towards things that can have maximum impact on their community. But, over time, David, what we want to do is to make it, so that we no longer have a wait list, so that every kid in Washtenaw County that is interested in benefiting from this experience will be able to. So, right now, we're at 134 kids. Next year, I would love to build it up to 150. I'd love to have at least 200 kids in the next few years.
David Fair: Well about this same time next year, you and I will get together again! We'll have a whole new batch of experiences to share!
Matt Tarver-Wahlquist: I can't wait! And I really, really enjoyed talking to you today! Thanks so much!
David Fair: That is Matt Tarver-Wahlquist, and he is executive director of Washtenaw Camp Placement. He's been our guest on Washtenaw United. For more information on Washenaw Camp Placement and the work it's doing with the community's children, visit our website at wemu.org. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and you hear it every Monday. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU FM Ypsilanti. Celebrating 60 years of broadcasting from the campus of Eastern Michigan University!
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
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