Originally published on 08/20/19
on Scottsdale.org

The walls of Swift Youth Foundation are a fitting visual representation of the nonprofit organization: vibrant, bold and full of life. 

But this wasn’t the case as of a few days ago.

On Aug. 12, Scottsdale Fresh Coat Painter employees dedicated their time to paint the walls, giving the nonprofit organization a much-needed face-lift since moving into the new office space in the Airpark just over one year ago.

“The new space fit our needs a lot better than before, but all the walls were white,” said Swift Youth Foundation Assistant Director Michael Evans. “The white walls did not give the fun, energetic and kid-friendly atmosphere we desired.”

As part of Fresh Coat Painter’s Fresh Coat Cares program, owner Michael Gorman and a handful of his employees gave Swift Youth Foundation a fresh look — free of charge.

Gorman estimates the project would have cost the nonprofit $3,500 to $4,000. 

“We do things the right way, and that’s our tagline: Painting done right. And to me, part of that is giving back to the community. The community’s been good to us, and so we want to reflect that back,” Gorman said.

Sherwin-Williams donated the paint and materials for the project. 

“They’re our partners in this,” Gorman said. “A Sherwin-Williams color consultant came in and helped match up their colors.”

Fresh Coat Painter Scottsdale intentionally chose colors — blues and greens — that reflect the nonprofit’s brand.

“We are so excited to be able to add some color to our work space and really make the space our own. We work with kids and love to have fun, so adding our fun brand colors to the walls was a no-brainer,” Evans said.

Evans added that the new paint “signifies making the office their own.”

“Before it was a workspace that anyone could work in, but now it is Swift’s space. The office now screams Swift, and that’s the way we like it,” he said.

Swift Youth Foundation was founded in 1980 and, for nearly 40 years, has provided economically disadvantaged youth with a residential summer camp experience called Camp Swift.

Camp Swift was founded by Jewish teens as a social action project of the Southwest chapter of the North American Federation of Temple Youth — then called SWFTY and now called NFTY SW.

The teens wanted to share the gift of a camp experience with kids who would otherwise never be able to afford it. 

The Camp Swift program initially included one annual four-night, five-day overnight camp session each summer, but the program expanded 10 years ago to include year-round after-school programs and summer day camps.

“As our Camp Swift program wraps up for summer, Swift looks forward to keeping the fun going into the school year through our diverse offering of out-of-school programs for the youth we serve,” Evans said. 

Approximately 600 kids ages 8 to 11 and 125 college-bound teens participate in Swift’s programs each year — programs that range from positive, mentor-based after-school programs to teen leadership development programs.

What’s unique about Swift is its peer-to-peer model. 

For example, approximately 125 teens serve as volunteer counselors at Camp Swift each year.
“So, it’s older teens that go through instruction on how to mentor and end up mentoring younger teens,” Gorman said. “The goal is that the younger teens eventually move into the mentor roles, and it just keeps developing that way.”

“We see peer mentorship between youth and teens as the essential element that enables the success of our participants now and in the future,” Evans said. 

Fresh Coat Painter is relatively new to the Scottsdale area; it opened last year.

There are, however, 130 Fresh Coat Painters locations nationally.

Gorman said he’d like to provide paint services to an organization in need annually via Fresh Coat Cares.

“There are a lot of painting companies out there, but we’d like to be just a little bit different. We want to be a partner in the community,” he said.
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Information: swiftyouth.org, freshcoatpainters.com

Originally published on 08/14/19
on FreshCoatPainters.com/Scottsdale
​
​On Monday, August 12th, Fresh Coat Painters of Scottsdale participated in a Fresh Coat Cares program and painted the headquarters of the Swift Youth Foundation. The program was inspired by Eric Ascencio, former owner of Fresh Coat Painters of Cinco Ranch / Sugar Land. Eric’s mission was to be an inspiration for cancer patients and to give back to those in his community.

Fresh Coat Cares Scottsdale selected Swift Youth Foundation due to the long-time work Swift Youth Foundation has done with teen mentoring and how it has made such a positive impact on the lives of Phoenix-area students who may come from more challenging circumstances. Swift has created a college-track for some students who may not have felt that was possible before.

The first step in the project was working with a Sherwin-Williams color consultant who helped match paint colors with the existing color template for the Swift Youth Foundation brand. Once the colors were selected, a plan was devised for divergent colors in each room.

Thomas Bawdwen
July 2019
originally published on ACACamps.org

In an increasingly connected world, today’s children experience an ever-decreasing connection to the natural world. As a result of hours of screen time, lengthening school days, and increasing participation in organized out-of-school activities, children are spending less time outside than ever before. Because of this lack of outdoor time, their connection to and understanding of their natural surroundings is startlingly absent.

With proven positive impacts of spending time outdoors, it is undeniable that increasing children’s engagement with their natural world should be a priority. Camps are uniquely poised to provide children with a high-quality, engaging experience outdoors that will equip them with the skills, mindset, and passion to continue their natural exploration when they leave camp property. With limited time and resources, it is imperative that camp staff maximize the time they have to share their passion for nature with their campers.

An outdoor education experience must do more than simply provide a camper with information about their surroundings. Ideally, an experience will leave a camper with the following outcomes:

• A kindled passion for exploring nature
• Skills, tools, and knowledge necessary for successful immersion in nature
• An understanding of basic environmental stewardship principles
• Elements of character development

To accomplish these outcomes, an effective outdoor learning experience should be outcomes-based. Not every piece of the campers’ experience will meet all four outcomes, but the aggregate of their experience should meet all the outcomes for it to be effective in reconnecting campers with nature and outdoor play.
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This guide to effective outdoor education explores each of these four outcomes and provides methods to achieving them. Because no guide is comprehensive, this represents a starting point from which a camp program focused on nature can be devised or a training program implemented.

Even though the campers are leaving camp today, each one will take away valuable lessons and friendships. In college, students must make important decisions, test their skills and creativity, solve challenges, and even work together to learn and gain a degree to help them pursue their dreams. The campers did just this through programs at Swift University, and their hard work paid off at the Swift Graduation ceremony during the final dinner. Today, the campers were surveyed to better understand how well Camp Swift achieved the goals we set through programs and we will use the data to plan programs. The outcome of the survey will be published in the fall. Both campers and counselors also took a survey about their camp experience before they left. ​

Staying true to our mission of "creating the path from present to potential through peer mentor relationships", Swift offers a host of meaningful opportunities for our campers and counselors to stay connected all year long. If you would like to learn more about our opportunities, please sign up for our monthly E-Newsletter and you will be the first to receive our 2019-2020 program dates when they are released in just a few weeks. 

All in all, this was another great season of Camp Swift and we are so grateful for everyone who made this memorable camper experience possible. If you would like more information on how to help, check out our page of opportunities!