SPRINGFIELD – The Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts (JFS) is helping to ensure kids in the Pioneer Valley stay engaged, focused and continue their education despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Sara Bedford, who serves as the organization’s New American Program Director, explained to Reminder Publishing that in a typical year JFS partners with the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Springfield “to send new American kids to the JCC’s in-person summer camp.”

However, this year due to the pandemic the JCC was forced to cancel in-person camp, and both organizations were forced to regroup. Bedford said the following the cancellation of camp, she began to think of ways for new American families to get the camp experience while also offering families assistance from the comfort and safety of their own home. “I was really thinking about how to take some pressure off of families this year. Many worked through the pandemic, or were laid off and had to motivate their kids to learn,” she explained.

Bedford said she also took into consideration that many new American families have lower literacy rates and live in “multi-generational households with many kids.” Additionally, she said these families do not have “the income to constantly come up with ideas and purchasing” items for their home.

All this information, she said, paired with the organizations’ desire to “think creatively about how to put the in the hands of the families” led to the creation of their Camp-in-a-Box Program.

The program consists of two boxes, Bedford explained, one that went out in mid-July and another that is anticipated to go out to families on Aug. 11. She said each box contains about eight-weeks worth of activities for a single child. “In the first box there’s 37 activities, it’s little bit more than an activity a day,” she said. This, she said, was intentional, as the activities “should carry all the kids through the second week of July to the school year.”

The activities and boxes ensure the “kids really have something to look forward to and anticipate the next day,” Bedford said. Additionally, she said it gives families a “structured part of the day.”

The activities, she said, are “activity based instead of screen based.” The first box hosted a variety of activities such as a gardening activity with soil and seeds, a shapes scavenger hunt, a STEM activity and more. While the majority of activities in the box are learning-based, Bedford said some are just fun such as Mustache Monday, where kids are given a fake mustache to wear for the day. The second box, she said, will include a soccer ball, “which everyone is excited about,” Bedford said.

In addition to the activities, families receiving boxes also get a guide with instructions and explanations surrounding the activities. The guide, along with the activities, she said, has undergone work to be as accessible to new American families as possible. “We have a contractor, whose a refugee contractor, to look at the activities in the box to make sure they were culturally competent, make sure they were appropriate for the refugee population,” she said. “We redid the guide that JCC did for the new American population, toned down the language, translated the guide into Nepali and Swahili.”

She explained that based on the feedback received from the contractor some activities were eliminated, and some “English language learning activities were added.”

Bedford said it was important that the guides be easily understood and accessible to families because, while most “kids are more proficient than their parents in English” if the camper is a 5-year-old “it’s the parents reading their instructions.”

In total between 200 and 250 boxes were delivered to families across the Pioneer Valley, she said. Boxes were delivered to families in Springfield, West Springfield, Westfield, Ludlow and other communities, Bedford said. Of the boxes delivered, Bedford said 150 of the boxes went to new American and refugee families. Seventy-five of the boxes, she explained, were distributed to low income families. Staff members facilities box pick ups by having families come to their office, if possible, and also socially distanced drop-offs at the families’ homes.

This, Bedford said, helped establish and continue to facilitate relationships between JFS and the families. JFS has also hosted “a Zoom camp party every week” to continue “providing that support for parents,” Bedford said. However, she emphasized that “most people are independent with their boxes.”

Providing support and assistance for parents, Bedford said, was really important for JFS for several reasons. “It’s one thing to hand someone a resource, pat yourself on the back and move on to the next great idea,” she said.

Bedford explained that it was important to have “those conversations on how to support kids during this time,” in all aspects. The boxes, she said, are a “good entry point for the conversation, a good tool to put in the parents hands for the summer.”

“We want to walk the road with and alongside these families, it’s not a situation where we’re like ‘here’s your box, having a good time, see you in August,’” she said.

For those interested in volunteering, donating and learning about the JFS’ mission can visit https://www.jfswm.org. Refugee and new American families interested in services can call JFS at 737-2601 or email info@jfswm.org.