A happy new year to you all! It’s been a busier than usual Autumn, and now that January has arrived, the Camp Jojo team are in full swing with applications for 2024 and making preparations for an exciting year ahead.
Our New Purchase!
Having sought feedback and advice from our families and volunteers, we decided to make the leap and purchase our very own Mobiloo (portable accessible bathroom), complete with ceiling track hoist and height adjustable shower bench. This will be used alongside our permanent accessible bathroom at Ivy Farm, meaning that we can now meet the needs of more families who require these facilities.
For so many families, appropriate bathroom facilities are a huge barrier to accessing activities and events. This often means that siblings end up missing out too. At Camp Jojo we believe that ‘everybody can’,and so it is important to us that our facilities are enabling this.
A Northern Expansion
We are delighted to announce that (subject to funding) Camp Jojo is officially expanding to the North! In 2025 we hope we will be running three camps at our new site, Nags Head Farm, in Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria. After an expression of interest from owners Alex and Douglas Chalmers, the Camp Jojo team have now been to visit the site three times and are confident that it will provide a serene camping experience, whilst meeting the needs of children with complex needs. We now have a ‘Northern development’ committee working alongside Alex and Douglas to ensure everything is ready for 2025. We are excited that this new development would increase the number of families that we are able to support overall, and be more accessible to those from the North.
Highshore School
Another significant decision made at our latest board meeting was to continue with our collaboration project with Highshore School, London. Last summer we offered one camp exclusively to families from Highshore School. Highshore is in an area of considerable inner city deprivation and there is very little in the way of green spaces nearby. Some families have never been out of London - let alone camping on a beautiful island in Essex! The board felt that this project was so worthwhile that Camp Jojo should commit to collaborating with Highshore for another two summers, before moving on to another inner London school.
Family and Volunteer Applications
Family and volunteer applications are now open for 2024. We have now received six times as many family applications as we are able to accept. This fills us with pride in knowing that the magic of Camp Jojo is spreading, but it also highlights the severe lack of opportunities such as this to families of children with complex needs. We are very aware that some difficult decisions will need to be made in the coming months regarding which families to accept. Family applications close on 31st January. Families will be told a decision in April, once the selection team has had time to consider all applications carefully.
Volunteer applications are also coming in thick and fast. It’s been great to see so many applications from returning volunteers, plus lots of new names! We are recruiting volunteers to fulfil a range of roles including family support, leading activities, catering, photography and site maintenance. If you are interested in volunteering, please click here to find out more.
We aim to close volunteer applications on 21st May, but we may need to close early if we reach our capacity before that date.
Camp Dates for 2024
This summer we are pleased to be able to increase to 6 camps at Ivy Farm. The dates this year will be:
26th-28th July
(exclusively for families from Highshore School,
but open to volunteers as usual))
2nd-4th August
7th-9th August
16th-18th August
23rd-25th August
28th-30th August
Friends of CJJ and Fundraising Events
As a small charity we do rely on fundraising and generous donations to keep us going. We would really value your help with this!
We massively appreciate all donations, but we are particularly hoping to encourage our supporters to sign up to become a Friend of Camp Jojo by setting up a monthly direct debit. These regular donations help us to keep a consistent stream of funds, which helps us to budget and plan for the year ahead. Please click here to set up your direct debit.
Another fun way of helping us could be to hold a fundraising event– many of our volunteers have held or taken part in events such as coffee mornings, sponsored runs, concerts and bingo nights, to raise money for Camp Jojo. We can provide you with posters, leaflets and collection tins. Please email information@campjojo.org.uk to let us know what you are planning and see how we can help!
Camp Jojo Team
As our charity develops, inevitably so have we!
We would like to welcome a few new members to our team:
Louise Ormond has joined us as a new part time operations manager. Louise came to camp with her family last summer, so we are delighted to now have her on the team, bringing her personal experience of camp.
Tom Munson has joined us a trustee. Tom is another parent who has been to camp with his family. He brings a wealth of experience and it’s great to have a fresh pair of eyes on our board.
Alex Chalmers has joined us a trustee and Douglas Chalmers has joined us as a special advisor to the board. Alex and Douglas own Nags Head Farm, our new site in Cumbria. We look forward to them being an integral part of the charity. They bring with them their experience of supporting individuals with disabilities or mental health needs to pursue outdoor activities and farm work. Plus a long list of other charity work and farming experience!
With good wishes,
The Camp Jojo Team
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