Heads Up! Hartford Summer Camp

Campers must have completed 8th grade and can attend as campers up through the summer after their high school graduation.

After breakfast each day, the camp breaks into teams and heads to nonprofit destinations in and around the city of Hartford: CRT Day Care Centers, elderly and disabled housing centers, FoodShare, and The Village for Children and Families, among others.

Upon returning to our camp facilities, the youth enjoy free time to unwind and get to know the other campers better. The campers then sit down together and enjoy dinner together. Each evening involves either an educational program related to social emotional learning or a leisure activity (talent show, basketball tournament, all-camp games). Time is made for each of the work teams to debrief their day and each day closes with a gathering of all campers, which includes stories of the day and slides of each of the teams’ work sites. 

On the weekend, campers fan out to grocery stores to conduct food drives for local food banks. They engage in team-building activities and games, and each team builds a picnic table or bench that is donated to a local charitable organization. 

On the final day, our campers enjoy a picnic and excursion to a local state park. That night, members of the community and families are invited to our closing ceremony.

Want more details? Check out our Camp Week at a Glance page! 

 Thank you for considering our leadership and community service camp for your child. Our program is designed to foster leadership, teamwork, growth, and community engagement through hands-on volunteer work with local nonprofits.

It is important to note that our camp is not a therapeutic environment, and we do not have the staffing resources to provide individualized counseling or interventions to campers during camp activities or at volunteer sites. Depending on your child’s needs, our volunteer staff may not be equipped to provide your child’s appropriate environment or level of care.

We encourage you to reflect on whether our camp is a good fit for your child. For the week of camp, campers will work as part of a group, performing 40 hours of work for a variety of community nonprofits. Campers should be comfortable working within a group setting, taking initiative to work on tasks independently without adult prompting, following schedules, taking direction, and contributing to volunteer projects alongside their peers. Campers will be working outdoors and must be capable of independently managing their hydration and wellness throughout the day. Campers can use a staff member’s phone to call home, but our staff are not equipped to provide constant phone access during work days. A good rule of thumb: If your child could self-manage an age-appropriate part-time job, they will typically be ready for a week of HUH service work. 

Our camp provides a part-time nurse on campus each day; however, although our staff are all trained in first aid and CPR, registered nurses do not accompany campers on field trips or to work sites and do not stay overnight at the camp. 

We welcome all campers who are excited about making a difference in the community and who are ready to take on this leadership opportunity. If you feel your child would thrive in such an environment, we would be excited to have them join us. If you have any concerns about whether the camp is the right fit, please reach out—we’re happy to answer any questions in order to help you make the best decision for your child.

If you have questions, or if you’d like to discuss your child’s situation, please call Rose Murphy at 203-445-3269.

Each team of 8-10 campers is led by an adult (25+) and a college-aged (18-24) counselor.  A registered nurse is at camp each day. Two camp directors are on site to coordinate the staff and all programs. Overnight, professional security staff are on-site.

All staff members are certified in CPR, first aid, and epi-pen administration. All staff are background checked, trained in state child safety laws and policies, and in camp-specific safety policies and regulations.

To keep the cost of camp accessible to all families, all HUH staff are volunteers. 

We work hard all year to make sure that camp is accessible for all families. In 22 years, we have never turned a child away for inability to pay! Please see below ("Paying for Camp") to read about our unusual donation-based system for camp fees.