Social Services
To bring about meaningful change, individuals need ongoing encouragement and tools. We’re here day-in and day-out to provide the resources our communities need to address the most pressing social issues: child welfare, education and substance abuse. We work to make sure every child, family and community has what they need to achieve their best.
Food Service Program
When the school year ends, so do free meals for the millions of children who depend on them most. This summer, the Y is partnering with Walmart in an effort to feed more children through the Summer Food Service Program—the program by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide free meals to children aged 18 and under while school is out of session. More than 300 Ys nationwide will provide seven million nutritious meals to 70,000 children now through August.
According to the USDA, 19.5 million low-income children receive free or reduced meals during the school year. As part of the YMCA’s summer food program, children aged 18 and under will continue to receive two meals a day–or one meal and a snack—while school is out of session. Not only will this provide thousands of children much needed meals this summer, but it will also help alleviate the strain on family food budgets.
Healthy bodies create healthy communities, so we care about child nutrition.
Summer Food Service Program: Both Camp Lyndon and the West Barnstable Day Camp offer free lunch to children that qualify through the Department of Education’s Summer Food Service Program. Children receive delicious and nutritious meals each camp day prepared by our food service staff in Camp Lyndon’s kitchen. Campers enjoy meals that range from meatball subs to chicken parmesan sandwiches to chef salad and is always served with a nice cold milk. We pride ourselves in serving our campers high quality and well balanced meals. This invaluable service helps families provide a healthy meal for their child while at our camps.
HDM: The Home Delivery Meal Program is a pilot through the USDA to expand our Summer Food Service Program. This unique program delivers breakfast and lunch seven days a week during summer vacation to children in the Barnstable County 18 years and under. The Camp Lyndon kitchen staff prepared complete breakfasts and lunches that were enjoyed by all participants. These meals were packaged and hand delivered to each individual family’s door.
The Brewster Treatment Program
This program finds its home at the Stephen L. French Forestry Camp based out of Nickerson State Park. Up to 18 incarcerated clients between the ages of 15-18 years have an opportunity during a 6-8 month residential treatment program to realign themselves with healthy core values and morally sound decision- making skills.
Through a partnership with the Old Colony Y and the MA Division of Youth Services, the YMCA Cape Cod has been contracted to deliver adventure-based programs that complement the treatment efforts of the program. This experiential education curriculum includes ropes course experiences, biking, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, rock climbing, & and endless possibilities.
Now in its second year of delivery, the Adventure Training program is thriving. Additionally, the YMCA Cape Cod staff leaders have been working closely with Old Colony Y staff to promote an even stronger program. During April and May both Y’s dedicated several weeks of modular training to enhance and enrich the treatment program. This training curriculum included high and low angle challenge course facilitation, life guard courses for both pool and open waterfront, as well as cross training staff with Dialectic Behavior Treatment. These training modules have been a great step in creating a well balanced, invigorated staff team that once again shows the positive influence the YMCA Cape Cod has on it’s surrounding Cape community.
High Flight Program
High Flight is a social intervention program for pre-teens and teens in grades 4-7 with a focus on both adventure based counseling and recreational group activities for “at risk” youth. This afterschool program provides a forum for young people to learn about themselves, their interaction and relationships within a group and the opportunity to develop behavior management and conflict resolution skills to achieve success.
Tasks and activities are designed to challenge the student’s participation in both individual effort as well as active engagement in positive group activities that require communication, cooperation and awareness of group interdependence. The program offers individual and group initiatives designed to foster trust, enhance self-control and develop self-confidence. Community service projects are an essential element of High Flight that is carefully linked to the program objectives and outcomes. These service projects teach the students responsibility, leadership and teamwork while allowing them to learn the value of giving back to the community.
The overall program goals are to alter negative behavior patterns and beliefs in both the youth and the adults in the community who see these young people as troublemakers. Further, the overall goals of the High Flight program challenge youth to alter their own behaviors by teaching about conflict management, recognizing adversity, improving self-esteem, increasing peer and family interaction and creating positive change by making good choices daily. Adventure-based programs provide an attractive and proven catalyst for positive personal change and group success especially for this age youth.
High Flight is considered an effective counseling program that utilizes a motivational point system designed to help middle-school youth in need of intervention. The point system is a weekly written assessment of goals and behaviors that is designed to allow students, their families, teachers and YMCA staff equal opportunity for input and accountability regarding the student’s experience in the program.
The High Flight program is offered free to students, however the students must maintain an agreed level of points once enrolled in order to continue to participate. Incentive field trips are offered as a reward system for positive change and may include sporting events and outdoor adventure activities. The High Flight program is designed to provide “at risk” youth a safe environment to express themselves and develop positive personal change in a structured group setting. The results and outcomes over time have helped redirect negative behaviors in the classroom and reduce bullying throughout our school systems.