Anti-Bias Education- Orange County Peace Camp

The Orange County Peace Camp was founded in 1993 and focuses on teaching peace, non-violence, and social justice. The summer of 2022 was our first year volunteering at OC Peace Camp, and it made a powerful impact on us. Our theme for that summer was “Beyond Tolerance: Practicing Empathy and Embracing Individual Differences”.

We participated in this week-long camp as youth leaders. With our roles being youth leaders, we were responsible for leading activities and supervising campers. During this experience, we emphasized on the importance of anti-bias education which meant that we made sure that everyone was able to participate in activities and express their feelings.

One of our approaches to having anti-bias education was to provide opportunities to include children who may not have access to certain forms of education. Therefore, we spoke with the Thomas House Family Shelter to arrange for children living in the shelter to have a chance to participate at camp. In our first year, -summer of 2022- we raised $2000 to bring ten children from Thomas House Family Shelter to OC Peace Camp. In the following years, we also raised money to support children from Thomas House Family Shelter in attending camp.