 The Minnesota National Guard's Youth and Family Programs will oversee its latest event for military-connected youth in Minnesota when "tweens," youth ages between 9 and 13 years old, attend one of two overnight, peer-to-peer camps before summer ends.
"This is an age group that we wanted to specifically target," said Laura Groeneweg, the Minnesota National Guard's lead Child and Youth Program coordinator. "Currently we have the Minnesota Military Teen Panel and Teen Summits for kids ages 13 to 18, so developing a program for our military-connected youth that fall in the 'between' population is something we wanted to do.
"The events, held at the Minnesota Zoo from Aug. 23 to 24 and Sea Life Aquarium at the Mall of America from Sept. 7 to 8, will include activities to provide them an opportunity to meet other military-connected youth," Groeneweg said. "We will also build the resilient child by teaching them about Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg's '7 Cs: The Essential Building Blocks of Resilience,' which was designed to help youth thrive through both good and challenging times."
"By building the resilience of our youth, we're helping them to make positive choices in their life," said Capt. Marian Belinski, the Minnesota National Guard's deputy State Family Programs director. "Additionally, the well-being of our military-connected youth affects family readiness, and family readiness affects the readiness of the Servicemember."
"During the overnight events, tweens will also learn about adapting to a changing environment by seeing how the animals have adapted and now thrive in a new environment," Groeneweg said. "The point is to show them that we all go through change, and during difficult times - including when we are separated from a loved one because of service - we can still thrive and be successful."
Registration for both events is full, but future events are being planned to reach out-state youth and other Metro-area youth that were unable to register in time, Groeneweg said.
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