Welcome! Thanks for your interest in Heads Up! Hartford, a nonprofit one-week overnight community service and leadership camp for teenagers finishing grades 8-12.
Our 2025 camp will be held in June at the Ethel Walker School, a boarding school in Simsbury, CT. To be first to know about 2025 registration, deadlines, and updates, please click here to leave your contact information!
This is an interest form that allows us to share information about 2025 camp when it becomes available. This is not a registration form and does not register your child for a place at camp.
Heads Up! Hartford has been a trusted 501(c)(3) volunteer-driven nonprofit for over 20 years. The 2024 Camp Fee is $525; however, we are a pay-what-you-can nonprofit based on community donations. On our camp registration form, you will see options for payment, including some examples of financial assistance that we work with you to provide. These include:
There is no additional paperwork needed to access financial aid options; campers and their families should proceed with the registration form.
For registered 2024 campers, camp payment options include:
Your support and contributions will enable us to continue to offer our camp each year. Your generous donation will fund our missions of promoting diversity, developing leadership, and providing community service.
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!
Campers must have completed 8th grade and can attend as campers up through the summer after their high school graduation.
Each team of 8-10 campers is led by an adult and a college-aged counselor. In addition, there are numerous volunteers who assist with patrolling the grounds, distributing snacks, and keeping the camp running smoothly.
Overnight, professional security staff are on-site. A nurse is at camp each day. Two camp directors are on site to coordinate the staff and all programs.
Our camper Youth Advisory Board leaders (YABs) are integral to Heads Up! Hartford! Click below to read a description of YAB responsibilities or apply to be a YAB for 2025.
Questions about joining the Youth Advisory Board? Email headsuphartford@gmail.com.
Copyright © 2024 Heads Up! Hartford - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy