Monthly Teen Hangouts take place at the Hansen Home for Hope on the first Sunday of each month. The opportunity allows Children’s Cancer Connection®’s local teens to just be together within a regularly scheduled time. We understand that teens just want to be with their friends. It’s all about connection. A reliably scheduled time, even for just a few hours, to do just that means the world to them. Whether they play video games, watch movies, compare school notes, or just catch up and chat, any time together is time well spent.
Teen Lock-ins are a simple but special program. They provide teens of Children’s Cancer Connection® the opportunity to get together and stay connected. Spending time with friends is a top priority for teenagers, and CCC’s teens form exceptionally strong friendships. Most are started between teens at Camp Heart Connection, but not all. Lock-ins provide both the opportunity for established friends to reunite and spend time together, and the chance for new connections to form. This is especially possible because lock-ins are not separated like camp between oncology and sibling campers. Teens are free to meet and connect with new faces who are also part of CCC. Teen Lock-ins are a chance to build and strengthen powerful friendships throughout the year.
Leaders-In-Training, or LIT, is a summer camp-based program that takes place at Camp Heart Connection Oncology and Sibling Camps. The LIT program is an opportunity for teens who are nearing high school graduation (and thus graduation from camp) to transition from camper to counselor. This program is done in the hopes that more campers will return as camp staff members after they have graduated from the program. LITs are selected for each camp through an application process, one of many ways that helps them understand the weight of responsibility that is required of a counselor. The goal is to educate them on how to be a prepared leader through shadowing and observation, so that they may succeed in the role as counselor upon returning to camp. We understand that the transition from camper to counselor is a drastic shift in priorities and responsibility; LIT is the program that encourages and prepares our teens for that transition.