Camp Journey expands to Chelsea Middle School

Some Shelby County students will get an opportunity to learn more about the Sheriff’s Office, leadership and their school resource officers this summer.

Camp Journey, a joint effort between Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Compact 2020 and the Shelby County Board of Education, will return for the second year this June. In 2017, the one-week camp was only available to rising Oak Mountain sixth-graders, but this year they chose to expand to Chelsea area students as well, said Sgt. Nathan Kendrick.

“From one-on-one [conversations] with the kids, they seemed to really take well to it and were interested in what we did, and honestly we had a fun time doing it,” Kendrick said. That feedback led them to work to expand Camp Journey to another school with sheriff’s office deputies as their school resource officers.

Last summer, students would start their day with a guest speaker and then move on to activities both in and out of the classroom. Lessons ranged from leadership and teamwork to etiquette and assertiveness, drawing on curriculum from the Leader in Me program at Oak Mountain Intermediate School and from Compact 2020 lessons. 

While Compact 2020 is an organization focused on drug-free education and battling drug use within the county, Kendrick said the lessons taught at Camp Journey are not drug-centered. Instead, they teach students skills to deal with situations where someone might have or be offering drugs. Kendrick cited the example of teaching assertiveness, which can translate into “how to tell someone ‘no’ and mean it.” 

They also participated in fun games, such as a schoolyard game called 9 square, which Kendrick said was a hit among students and deputies alike.

“One of the biggest travesties of my youth was that they hadn’t invented 9 square when I was a kid,” Kendrick said. 

While they’ll continue classroom lessons at this year’s Camp Journey, Kendrick said they also plan to have more outdoors and recreation-based instruction.

He said the ultimate goal of Camp Journey is to build a relationship with students so that they feel comfortable coming to their schools’ SROs or other deputies if they ever need help. By hosting the camp for rising sixth-graders, Kendrick said they are able to connect with an age group that isn’t “too cool” for the deputies. The fact that students are also transitioning into a middle school setting, which can be daunting, is also a plus. 

A personal goal for Kendrick is reaching students who might have a negative memory of law enforcement and show that SROs are a resource.

“Maybe those kids, they only contact they’ve had with law enforcement is when mom and dad are fighting, and they take daddy to jail,” Kendrick said. “We want to let these kids know we’re here to help them, and we’re their friends, and they get to see us in that light.”

Talking with kids now can help create a solid group of leaders in their middle school, Kendrick said, and hopefully deter kids from going down a negative path.

“What we’ve seen time and time again is if we can intervene early on, it’s easier to prevent than it is to correct,” Kendrick said.

Camp Journey will take place at Oak Mountain Middle School in the third week of June, and at Chelsea Middle School the fourth week of June. They expect about 60-70 students per school to participate.