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 decided to speak with the Thomas House Family Shelter to arrange for children living in the shelter to be able to participate in the camp. We raised $2000 to bring 10 children from Thomas House Family Shelter to OC Peace Camp in the summer of 2022.