Build My Spirit Summer Camp

ASCENDtials provides our signature Build My Spirit program for BIPOC youth ages five through seventeen in San Diego. Our curriculum is based on African philosophies and incorporates yoga, art, music, mental health sessions, and creative expression.

ASCENDtials will provide a week-long Build My Spirit summer camp for BIPOC youth at the WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park. Build My Spirit is a unique children’s mental health service. The curriculum is based on principles from ancient Kemet, meaning “Land of the Blacks” (modern-day Egypt), and the wisdom from our ancestors on the African continent. We employ BIPOC creatives trained in our curriculum to connect with BIPOC youth. Instructors in the program are experts in their respective fields: mental health treatment, art, sound healing, Kemetic Yoga, and djembe drumming.

Build My Spirit promotes wellness, connection to nature, healthy coping skills, and resiliency. The curriculum covers the natural elements, symbolism perception, and social-emotional learning through engaging and practical activities such as yoga, art, music, gardening and direct work with experienced mental health professionals. Experts who specialize in literary art, cultural art, and social-emotional learning facilitate the sessions. All activities ask youth to imagine, think critically, and practice balance and harmony according to the life cycles and laws of nature.

Population Served

Build My Spirit serves low-to-moderate income BIPOC children and youth in San Diego, particularly those with high concentrations of melanin in their bodies, who have greater needs for access to mental wellness resources due to past and current health disparities. These disparities may have been a result of social circumstances, environmental exposures, and systemic racism. Our program provides a valuable resource to BIPOC children and families in need of mental and behavioral health support.

Outcomes

By the end of the Build My Spirit program:

100 percent of participants will be able to identify the four steps of the Dogon creation process, name one activity where they have implemented it, and name one activity where they plan to use it in the future.
100 percent of participants will be able to name the five senses and their sensory organs, explain how to tune into the sixth sense (proprioception, or the awareness of where one’s body is in space), and describe one way they use the senses to implement the five Maat principles (balance, truth, order, harmony, and reciprocity).
100 percent of participants will be able to identify two strategies or healing techniques they have learned through the program.
At least 75 percent of participants will have already applied one strategy or healing technique to a life situation.
At least 75 percent of participants will indicate that they have a greater alignment of their body, mind, and spirit than they had before the program.
100 percent of participants will know how to implement principles that they will be able to apply to help them heal themselves

Sessions

Half day camp: 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Session 1: July 25 – 29

Session 2: August 1 – 5