Camp Fire Community Center programs provide free, safe and nurturing after school environments to youth in lower income neighborhoods. Each program is located in "Renaissance Zones" where more than half of all residents have low to moderate incomes. The program is similar to our licensed school age child care, with an added emphasis on homework assistance and activities that build self esteem. Community centers enable parents to work by providing quality after school care for their children.

Camp Fire operates four Community Center programs in Anchorage and two in Fairbanks, serving approximately 250 children each day.

Fairview Community Center Program
For more than twenty years, staff at Camp Fire's Fairview Community Center Program have greeted the children every school day at Fairview Elementary School to walk them to the Camp Fire program housed a few blocks away at the Fairview Community Recreation center. Often times you can hear the children singing as they are walking through the neighborhood, come rain, shine or snow. The program provides opportunities for homework assistance, computer time, large group games, board games, science and craft activities. Staff integrates theme units that focus on health and safety for the children into the daily program. Children's Lunchbox partners with Camp Fire to provide a warm, nutritious dinner for the children and families in Fairview.

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Loussac Manor Community Center Program
Also operating for over twenty years is the Loussac Camp Fire program located in Loussac Manor, an Alaska Housing and Finance Corporation housing community. The staff provides two daily programs for the neighborhood's younger residents. The Younger Kid program is for children in grades K-5. The Older Kids program is for youth in grades 6-12. Both groups are provided with homework assistance, computer time, and a variety of activities. We are grateful for our community partners: The Society of Women Engineers volunteers work with the older kids every week providing academic assistance. Kids Café partners with the Camp Fire to provide a warm, nutritious dinner for the children and families of Loussac Manor. Wells Fargo has provided training and resources for their Hands On Banking money management curriculum that is offered twice a year for the youth.

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West Fairview Community Center Program
In October of 2006 Camp Fire formed a unique partnership with Central Lutheran Church and the Municipality of Anchorage to provide a free after-school program for children in the west Fairview neighborhood. The arrangement includes Central Lutheran donating space for the program; Camp Fire providing programming and staff; and an appropriation from the Municipality of Anchorage providing ongoing funding.

"Affordable and accessible child care is one of the best programs we can make available for Anchorage families." Mayor Mark Begich at the center's opening

Tyson Elementary Morning Center Program
With the support of the Anchorage Community Land Trust, Camp Fire has opened a morning Center Program at Tyson Elementary in Mountain View to provide a safe, consistent and engaging before school environment for students of the school. For more information on the program, contact the Camp Fire office at 279-3551.

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Fairbanks Community Center Programs
Camp Fire operates two Community Center programs in Fairbanks, each located in Alaska Housing and Finance Corporation housing communities. The programs offer after school programming to youth in the Birch Park and Spruce Park communities. For more information on these programs, contact Camp Fire's Fairbanks office at 456-4334.

Corporate Supporters
Please join us in thanking the following organizations who have joined Camp Fire in their commitment to youth by providing financial support to community center programs:
$100,000+
Alaska Housing and Finance Corporation
$50,000 +
The Municipality of Anchorage
$10,000 +
ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.
United Way of the Tanana Valley
Wal-Mart Foundation
$5,000+
ML&P
Northrim Bank
$2,000+
CIRI
McKinley Capital Management
The Fred Meyer Foundation
$1,000+
Udelhoven Oilfield System Services, Inc.
Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union
Totem Ocean Trailer Express, Inc.

And a very warm thank you to the many individuals who give of their time and resources to keep these programs operating.

Community Center Need
The Community Center program was started in 1978 to offer free of charge after-school and summer programs for at-risk, economically disadvantaged children ages 5-14. Camp Fire created the Community Center program to meet the needs of low-income parents to have quality after-school programming. As reported in the 2000 Welfare Reform Status Report, published by the State of Alaska, Department of Health and Social Services: It is only when parents feel sure that their children are well cared for that they can focus on improving the quality of their family’s life through employment.

Community Center Description and Goals
Children live in the neighborhood where their Community Center program is located. Children living in these communities are already vulnerable. It is well documented that the after school hours of 3:00 – 8:00 p.m. pose great risk to children. According to The Children’s Aid Society, violent juvenile crime triples during these hours and it is during these same hours that children face the most serious danger of becoming victims of crime. Additionally, after-school programs are not equitably distributed. Low-income youth are much less likely than their more affluent peers to have access to them.

By providing support close to home, Camp Fire Community Centers become a place where family, neighborhood and school norms and values are integrated. The day's schedule includes quiet time, homework help, special interest activities, outdoor activities, field trips and "open center" time when children choose their own activity. Children receive a balanced and nutritious meal each day, tutorial and homework support and small-group activities. The program emphasizes the use of special Camp Fire projects such as "I'm Safe Alone", "I'm Peer Proof", "Count On Me" (drug awareness), “Crime Busters” and community service projects. All programs are conducted year round, 2 ½ to 3 ½ hours daily, Monday through Friday by trained program staff who receive an average of 52 hours of advanced training annually. The Center program operates as a collaborative partner with the community, the schools, parents and other agencies.

Camp Fire has specific goals to accomplish through the Community Center program. These include providing a safe alternative during the after-school hours; facilitating a program that is filled with constructive use of children’s time, including opportunities to exhibit leadership and initiative in planning activities; and to create a supportive environment that encourages participants to build positive relationships with caring adults. Camp Fire measures the efficacy of the Centers program through a process of both internal evaluation and external surveys of parents. Camp Fire staff relate the Center participants daily successes and progress to parents as a key part of the community-based support model. The long-term impact on youth is to increase their success in school, provide them with positive adult role models to emulate and show them positive options available in their future.

Centers provide a support for working parents, and create positive interactions between parents and their children through activities they do together. Our mission is to build caring, confident youth and future leaders. This in turn builds strong communities.

The impact on the community is that youth have positive, supervised after-school activities, which build their competence to succeed in life. Without the program, youth would “hang out” and potentially be involved in dangerous or illegal activities or become victims of others. The impact on the community is that families are strengthened through support in parenting. This enables them to work and build relationships with other families and agencies in their community so that they are connected and take responsibility for the behaviors of children. The Anchorage Housing and Community Development Consolidated Plan for 2003 – 2007 lists safe, affordable child care in its anti-poverty strategy to help families move to economic self-sufficiency.