A summer of firsts
Through Youth Night OUT and summer camps, Sam swam, made crafts and built friendships — while his mom knew he was safe and included.
- Sam
Sam is 11, loves dinosaurs, and had spent a lot of summers on the outside looking in. Programs weren’t always set up for a kid like him, and his mom had learned to brace for the phone call asking her to come pick him up early.
Transitions’ summer day camps and Youth Night OUT were different. Staff were ready for Sam, and the whole point was that every kid belonged. He swam, made crafts, told a lot of dinosaur facts, and — for the first time — made friends who were genuinely his.
For his mom, there was a quieter gift too: knowing he was safe and included meant she could breathe, and work, and trust that he was having fun.
“He came home every day with a new story,” she says. “And something bigger than that — a place that was his.”
This story is a representative example based on the kinds of outcomes Transitions supports; names and details are illustrative.
Camp was the first place he was just one of the kids.