Camp Rosenbaum offers a unique experience to low-income children from Oregon and Southwest Washington. Campers travel by bus to Camp Rilea on the Oregon Coast, just south of Astoria. It’s there that they spend a week experiencing new adventures, making friends and building memories to last a lifetime.
While at Camp Rosenbaum, children enjoy traditional activities like art and science projects, leather crafts, horseback riding and fishing. Kids take trips to the ocean, participate in the sand castle contest and listen to stories around the campfire. While at Camp Rosenbaum we also encourage children to take responsibility for their lives, emphasizing the traits of being a good citizen, staying in school and making good choices. We remind each of our campers that they have the power to shape their future.
We have a one-to-one camper to staff ratio with staff who have decades of experience at Camp Rosenbaum. Camp Rosenbaum is lead by our Camp Director who is a military leader in the Oregon Air National Guard and our Program Director who is the only paid employee while at camp. We also have two head counselors who are volunteers from the Portland Police Bureau who assist group leaders in difficult situations like behavior problems or discrimination.
All of our staff and counselors are volunteers comprised of extraordinary members of our community that work in the Oregon National Guard, local law enforcement agencies to include our partners at the Portland Police Bureau, firefighters, housing authority employees like our partners at Home Forward, and other community volunteers from other local agencies as well as civilian volunteers who were prior civil servants. We’re proud to have a staff full of such amazing inspiration for our campers!
The counselor/camper ratio shall be 1:3 whenever possible and will exercise 24-hour supervision over their campers and at least one member of each team shall know the exact whereabouts of each of their assigned campers at all times. Counselors stay with their campers in their assigned bays in the dormitories (Starships). There are two buildings for campers and their counselors, the boys dormitories and the girls dormitories. Your camper will be assigned a bay to which gender they identify with, or if they are nonbinary or gender fluid, whichever bay they feel most comfortable staying in for the week.
Camp Rosenbaum staff and board members are committed to creating a fun and learning environment conductive to the overall development and social emotional health and well-being of all our campers. Gender nonconforming campers often experience discrimination, harassment and implicit bias at school and in their lives. These experiences can send campers the message that they do not belong. At Camp Rosenbaum, we make it clear: All campers DO belong and are welcome!
Transition: The personal process a transgendered individual who begins to live as their self-identified gender. This may include some or all of the following cultural, legal, and medical adjustments: telling one’s family, friends, and/or classmates; changing one’s style of dress; changing one’s name and/or sex on legal documents; hormone therapy; and possibly (though not always) some form of surgical procedure.
At Camp Rosenbaum, we support a camper’s right to use a facility corresponding with their gender identity as consistently expressed or to have access to a private or single use facility. Campers that identify as male will be placed in male bays and campers that identify as female will be placed in female bays. Parents are encouraged to communicate with the Program Director and Camp Rosenbaum staff if they have specific concerns about cabin assignments. If your child’s gender is nonconforming, we welcome you to speak with your child as to which group that they would feel most comfortable in.
Maybe. Counselors are asked to identify as male, female, or transgender/non-binary. If a counselor who is transgender identifies as male, he will lead a male camper’s bay and be placed in male group. If a counselor who is transgender identifies as female, she will lead female camper’s bay and be placed in a female group. If the counselor identifies as non-binary or gender fluid, they will be placed in the corresponding group that they feel most comfortable leading. Even thought campers are placed in male or female bays for sleeping arrangements, during the day, campers are mixed together during activities and lead by their group’s counselors and group leaders, comprised of male, female, or transgender/non-binary.
At Camp Rosenbaum, we support a camper’s right to use a facility corresponding with their gender identity as consistently expressed or to have access to a private or single use facility. Campers that identify as male may use male designated bathrooms, and campers that identify as female may use female designated bathrooms. Staff and counselors that identify as male may use male designated bathrooms, and staff and counselors that identify as female may use female designated bathrooms. Single stall bathrooms are also available to any camper or staff member who desires increased privacy.
At Camp Rosenbaum, we support a camper’s right to privacy and have established private dressing areas within the bays since campers typically change clothes in their bays and shower in the bathrooms in the barracks. Campers that identify as male may use male designated bays and bathrooms for changing and showering, and campers that identify as female may use female designated bays and bathrooms for changing and showering. If a camper desires increased privacy for any reason, Camp Rosenbaum staff will work with the camper to address this need.
Some privacy options that we provide include:
Yes. At Camp Rosenbaum, we respect the gender identity asserted by the camper. For example, a camper who was assigned a male gender at birth, and identifies as female, will be placed in a girl’s bay. A camper who was assigned a female gender at birth, and identifies as male, will be placed in a boy’s bay.
Not all the time. The camper application asks what gender the camper identifies as to help assist in group placement; however, families are not required to tell Camp Rosenbaum if the camper identifies as transgender. Camp Rosenbaum will only know if a camper is gender nonconforming or transgender if the camper or the camper’s parent provides that information. If a camper or camper’s parent chooses to share that information with Camp Rosenbaum, the organization will keep it confidential.
No. Campers are not required to tell Camp Rosenbaum their gender identity or transgender status. Even if a camper shares their gender identity or transgender status with Camp Rosenbaum, our organization is not allowed to divulge this information due to privacy laws.
No. The topic of transgender and gender nonconformity is not a class nor area of instruction at Camp Rosenbaum; however, the topic is prevalent in the community and the news. Children may be curious about what they are hearing on the radio, watching on television, or finding on the internet. Children may also receive information from another child who is gender nonconforming or transgender. Children will naturally ask their friends, siblings, parents, teachers, and Camp Rosenbaum staff about this topic. Camp Rosenbaum staff will always create an environment that supports children asking questions.
Yes. All Camp Rosenbaum staff receive training upon arrival to support gender nonconforming and transgender youth. This training is designed to provide basic direction for staff. It will not cover every situation that arises. The intent is to provide immediate guidance for staff to create a fun, safe and nurturing environment for all campers and to provide staff with awareness of best practices to address situations as they arise.
