Camp Lakey Gap: Making a GLOBAL Impact

Help us increase our impact on the lives of the GLOBAL autism community by bringing staff from other countries to Camp Lakey Gap!

Friends of Camp Lakey Gap - you know how important a culture of appreciation and acceptance has been in improving the quality of life for the people we love: our autistic family and friends that we come together to support each year through our summer camp program.

One of the most amazing aspects of our program is the impact the experience can have on our staff. Many staff leave Camp Lakey Gap with a newfound sense of purpose, having told me that camp prompted them to change their major to special education, or that it led them to go back to school for a masters degree in social work. After a summer at Camp Lakey Gap, staff are equipped with the tools to share what they learned at camp with family members to support their autistic relatives. The staff at Camp Lakey Gap emerge from the experience as empowered advocates for autistic people in their communities.

Creating advocates and professionals to support autistic people is one of the goals of our program, and we do it well.

This summer, we are expanding our impact by working with the J-1 Exchange program for camp counselors. The J-1 Exchange program offers a specific VISA for foreign nationals to come to the United States and work at a summer camp as a counselor, and we think we have just the experience for them! The potential effect of this opportunity is very exciting - to know that Camp Lakey Gap can have a positive impact on our campers AND on other autistic individuals that we may never meet, even if they are across the world!

This is where we need your help! In order to recruit and accommodate these potential exchange staff, we need to engage recruiters that are verified by the state department to vet potential candidates and help them with important paperwork. For this service, these agencies charge a fee. We are looking to bring 10 exchange participants to Camp Lakey Gap this summer, and the cost to do so is $17,000.

This is in addition to what we pay as a stipend, which is required to be in line with what the US counterparts receive in a summer.

We are asking you: how much do you value the global exchange of ideas around supporting autistic folks? Is it important to help people across the world become better professionals and advocates to support people we love and people like them?

We think it is!

If you agree that this is a wonderful, educational, and life-changing opportunity, please consider donating to our "Camp Lakey Gap Global Impact Fund."

Your contribution covers the cost of recruiting staff from other countries, giving our campers an opportunity to experience people from other cultures AND giving the worldwide autism community the gift of a more compassionate and understanding network of friends, family, and social support.