Partner Showcase: Summer Camping Alphapointe Style

all right everybody welcome in thank you for joining us today my name is paul this is a aph partner showcase today we're going to be talking about summer camping alpha point style and we'll explain to you a little bit more about what that is here in just a bit again welcome as you are coming in to aph's partner showcase today this is summer camping alpha point style so let's give you some of the ground rules for today things you'd need to know the partner showcase is very different from the other webinars that you may be a part of because well several things are different there is no acv rep credit there will be no code words today you won't have to go to any certificates or go anywhere else and download anything or enter any codes this is a very informal setting where we're just introducing you to a particular partner and all the partners that we work with they may be industry leaders they may be folks making new products or maybe in this case ones helping people learn how to use products so we're going to be featuring solutions that are for the classroom the workplace your home any or all of the above so let's begin by talking about our partner today alpha point things that i've learned about them that i didn't know their mission empowering people with vision loss to achieve their goals and aspirations they do that in a lot of different ways and we'll start hearing about how they do that in just a bit their vision a world where everyone with vision loss rises to their desired full potential whatever that is doesn't matter what it is that that person wants to become alpha point's there to help them try to reach those goals as best as they can let's talk about some of the services and other things that alpha point provides again this is stuff i didn't realize either alpha point provides employment and services for people who are blind or visually impaired it's one of the largest employers of people with vision disabilities in the united states with over 400 employees that completely surprised me the region's leader for vision rehabilitation education and advocacy able to help people experiencing vision loss at whatever level it is that they're they're at they served nearly 3 000 people through their rehabilitation services uh most years in 2021 alpha point served 514 people for the various youth development programs that's going to be one of the biggest features today of those development programs and finally alpha point volunteers contributed more than 4 000 hours of service on a yearly basis so fantastic we'll be hearing from one of those volunteers today all right so uh our presenters it looks like one of them may have just unfortunately just dropped off hopefully she'll be back in just a moment yes thank you jim for putting that in there please put your questions in the chat um we will get to those as we can our first presenter is lexi holzapple who works for youth services at alpha point uh she should be coming back here in just a moment i think her connection may have dropped we have jake mclaughlin here she's back paul she back oh fantastic okay jake mclaughlin's here senior manager from special events and programs for alpha point and finally rebecca best who is an alpha point volunteer and because of that volunteering she has started a career working with folks who are blind and visually impaired and she's going to be talking more about that as well as her experience with alpha point as we go along and we're going to get started today um with lexi who's going to talk to us about some of the different camps that alpha point provides whenever you're ready lexi okay one sorry i'm having a little bit of technical difficulties i had to uh jump on to jake's computer here um so he's trying to pull up my slideshows really fast so one second so do we need to stall here so we should we should we re-induce to re reintroduce trivia paul do we need taria we used to do uh at the start start of these we did we used to do trivia questions and we'd pick a topic like music or whatnot we thought it was pretty cool but i think we uh we wore the audience down so i'm not sure the audience was as into the trivia as we were but um yeah it was a good time i thought well yeah but you know we're not what's important it's the audience that's important right paul yeah exactly all right let me um as we're waiting for these guys i am going to um begin to drop some things into the chat for people to to take a look at so drop in all right i'm back on my computer all right okay here i'm going to share my screen smoothie all right can everyone see that looks good all right well sorry about that little technical difficulties um like paul mentioned my name is lexi and i am the youth program specialist at alba point and i am here to tell you guys a little bit more about our camps that we have to offer so starting with technology camp um technology camp is a week-long day camp for middle and high school-age students with vision impairments and the campers receive a laptop at the beginning of the week that are provided by computers for the blind and each of those laptops are a microsoft operating system and either have jaws or zoom text depending on the camera's visual needs that um visual needs and then they will train on those laptops all week um throughout the week they the campers will work with canvas and microsoft applications and then they will get the chance to advance in their internet navigation skills learn about internet safety and then each day they get to hear from a different mentor with vision loss who has successfully utilized technology within their careers within the past couple years we've also introduced code jumper to our technology camp curriculum and after learning a lot more about it the past couple years we are super excited to incorporate more of the aph lesson plans this summer so once the campers have completed the week-long camp they actually get to take home the laptops that they trained on all week and lastly technology camp is held monday june 20th through friday june 24th um change the screen here can you guys see that yep all right um so then our next camp is adventure camp and that is offered as a day camp and an overnight camp depending on your age um so adventure camp is your typical summer camp experience it introduces youth to a bunch of different camp activities but all while focusing on the particular needs and considerations of youth with vision impairments like i mentioned adventure camp is offered as a day camp and an overnight camp um the day camp is for six to ten year olds and the overnight camp is for 11 to 21 year olds so some of the different activities that the campers get to participate in include archery rope scores zip lining rock wall climbing horseback riding and then last year we got to add in axe throwing and mud pit tug of war which was definitely a fan favorite um and then lastly the overnight camps our dates is monday july 18th through saturday july 23rd and the day camp dates are july 19 through july 23rd so overnight camp and day camp are all the same week so how does that all right perfect so just a couple things that uh came to mind since these camps are coming up in june and july uh can folks register now or do they have to wait for a little longer before they can do that yes um both registration for technology and adventure camp are alive and the registration links are on our website as well as different information regarding the camps i think we have those that we can put into the chat thanks jim for putting those in there for folks um for technology camp something that just came up in my mind do you expect the student to have a certain level of knowledge when they come in or can they be pretty new with with screen readers and magnification definitely can be new um we typically have a beginner's route and then more advanced routes so it's for all realms of experience you outlined the age groups for the adventure camp what is the age groups for the technology camp or does it vary yeah so for technology camp we typically have middle school and high school age students but we do make exceptions for some students if we think that it would be a technology game would be a good fit for them okay and is there a cost for technology camp yes technology camp is two hundred dollars okay if there's a student who's interested in going that maybe cost is prohibitive is there anything that's available to assist them with that yes absolutely um we have financial aid scholarships and then we also have missouri council for the blind scholarships so we make sure that any youth that is interested in attending our camps can go perfect all right and um there was a question that came into the chat jim if you see that i know it's i think it's come up twice someone was asking about adventure camp i did i did lexi so the question is from mara and she's asking if adventure camp is open to youth that are visually impaired or blind and also have other disabilities yes it is open for visually impaired and blind and multiple disabilities i would i'm going to chime in real fast i would suggest if you know through our registration process which can be found online as well as the intake for either technology or adventure camp we we ask a series of questions that help us understand those specific needs for each uh you know youth uh i would suggest maybe giving lexi an email or a call if you ever did mara if you want so that she could discuss that further there are some challenges that we would face specifically at adventure camp just due to the nature of all the activities and programs we do we would just want to make sure that we were well aware in advance of those secondary disabilities that way we could provide the atmosphere and activities in an accessible way for uh youth to engage with other youth and also have just a great fun time out at camp yeah very helpful thanks for adding that jake um so lexi i know you mentioned briefly a little bit about uh working with different aph products can you talk about the high and the low tech products that you've utilized that are our products yeah for sure so like i mentioned we used the code jumper um during the week of technology camp and then we have actually also added a few more aph products to our collection that we are super excited to incorporate into tech camp this summer and that is the code and go robot mouse and the rc snap rover so we're super excited to learn more about different ways to incorporate those products into our camps this summer those will definitely add another fun dimension for kids like to build things and code and uh so those are those are two really good products so thank you for mentioning those uh turning from camp here for just a moment for other things though that alpha point does can you talk about some of the other services that you offer at alpha point that maybe we hadn't heard about or we just kind of mentioned briefly yeah for sure so um for the youth programs we also offer a student transition transitional employment program and that is an eight week summer program for high school age students and it really focuses on the student to work transition vocational exploration and self-advocacy and then we also have the college prep program which is a semester-long program offered year-round and the goal of this program is to really help the student achieve success and help ease the transition into college and then we have our comprehensive rehabilitation services we offer training and all skills for blindness and low vision and each of these programs are catered to the individual's needs so some of these programs include activities of daily living adaptive technology training braille and academics orientation mobility and low vision classes so we've got a whole bunch of different things this is all very useful stuff one thing that occurred to me is folks may not realize where you're located and where camp is being held so so where are these camps actually taking place yes so alpha point is located in kansas city missouri but camp is held at heartland campgrounds and that is in parkville missouri so do the kids that come have to be do they have to live in the kansas city area can they come from elsewhere not necessarily so for overnight campers they do have little lodges we call it glamping so the overnight campers do get to stay on the campgrounds for the day campers they do have to come each day they don't spend the night so that could be a little bit more tricky but the overnight campers for sure have a place to stay and you've had folks come from pretty far distances from what i understand is that right yes so for our technology camp last year we actually had a youth come from puerto rico so that was super exciting and we were so happy to have him travel all this way to attend our technology camp and can a student from outside the area still qualify for a scholarship if they need it yes they can for sure fantastic okay i think we had another question that came in as well yes um do you offer any other camp or events this year do you offer any other camps or events uh this year so i guess outside of what you guys are planning for the months of june or july do you do any other kind of at any other yes so we offer um an art program and we have our expanding youth experiences which is um monthly events that we have on the on saturdays and that can go anywhere from going sailing we did that last year we went skiing and snowboarding at snow creek so that really is just an opportunity for the youth to experience different activities if you have any other questions this is a good time to put those in the chat we appreciate those that have come in already uh we've got plenty of time to get to your questions can you elaborate on the art program lexi yes so we have one of our previous youth actually um is attends um the kansas city art institute and she is really helping us um develop a bigger art program this past year we had oh about four virtual art programs so we uh lily is her name she hosted the class and kind of did step by step through an art project and then we would send out the supplies and materials that they needed for each project to each person that signed up and then this year we are also planning to do a couple more of those virtual art programs as well as a handful of in-person ones and then in august we're going to have a week-long arc program so good helpful information thank you for for bringing that up as well we we do have another person joining us today and uh lexi if you'd like to introduce her yes um so we have rebecca best here with us today and rebecca has volunteered for alpha point for almost 10 years um she's helped a lot with developing and implementing both our technology and adventure camp and she is a o m specialist and a certified tbi and is currently working as a tbi in the north kansas city school district um so rebecca i'll turn it over to you to tell us a little bit more about your experience as a camp volunteer sure like lexi mentioned i've been volunteering with alpha point for almost 10 years in a variety of capacities i've done technology camp i've done adventure camp i've done our expanding youth experiences programs and i have been fortunate enough to meet some amazing kids and some amazing adults that make alpha point the awesome institution that it is as far as volunteering at these two camps it is a blast the kids and the adults have fun you get to be in there with the kids helping them you know learn how to shoot a bow and arrow pushing them down a slip and slide doing a ropes course with them but you also get to be there to be a mentor for them to encourage them to advocate for themselves and to step out and facilitate those relationships between campers because as a volunteer our job isn't to you know be with the campers and you know do everything for them our job is to facilitate them to do it for themselves and be independent and to build relationships with the other campers because those relationships that they build at this camp i see they last year around so these kids meet each other in the summer and we hear about you know oh they're having a sleepover now because they met each other at technology camp and they're now getting to hang out with each other um and during the regular year which is a really big deal for a lot of students who they may be the only blind or visually impaired student in their school let alone their school district so this provides an amazing opportunity for the kids and i was fortunate enough to get involved in this when i was in high school and it actually resulted in me making a career out of this i loved it so much that i decided i wanted to go to school to be a teacher the visually impaired and orientation and mobility specialist and i have achieved that dream now and i'm working in that field so i am grateful to alpha point on many levels for introducing me to this amazing world of vision and all the capabilities of these students well that that leaves me with some follow-up questions can you talk about how you first got introduced to alpha point sure um so i um it's kind of a funny story um i actually um found out about alpha point through one of their campers i was volunteering in high school at a middle school and middle school students said hey i go to this summer camp every year you should come with me since we were working together every day she was like come along so i then searched up alpha point and um called up and talked to talk to jake and he said come on volunteer and um then i started volunteering and never looked back yeah we we didn't let her leave but once she came so rebecca and lexi both have been instrumental for the development of our youth programs for many years now and uh if they try to leave i don't think i i would let them so the great role models both of them are very dedicated to the mission and cause and honestly just coming out to a venture camp or technology camp and you know interacting with these youth a lot of times i think people believe that you know they're going in service to help youth that are visually impaired and blind to try and experience new opportunities whatever that may be at through any of our various programs but what most likely and always seems to end up happening is that youth uh changes the life of either that volunteer or you know the alpha point employee or camp staff in ways that they would never expect and rebecca and next year both shining examples of that you know rebecca coming in not knowing exactly what she wanted to do and uh you know now she's uh i want them in the tvi so the the passion and the just sure dedication of these youth and their willingness and uh it spreads and it's um you know a good uh something contagious to catch and for myself i've never looked back i can't wait to go out to camps it's uh almost like a vacation for me and uh with uh mud pit and uh axe throwing introduced last year for the first time uh it's only get even better for me so uh take this opportunity really to thank both rebecca and lexi for just your dedication your passion uh to alpha point and really changing the lives of a lot of young people uh for the better rebecca can you think of one or two stories that maybe most summarize why uh those camps and why your alpha point experience has been so meaningful to you sure um one of the things i want to talk about is something that alpha point employs at adventure camp which is called challenge by choice so we allow students to challenge themselves as far as they want to push themselves we're going to encourage you and give you lots of applause and cheering to get you to try and push yourself a little further but we're not going to put force you to do anything and i got to see a great example of this one year we had a little guy who was terrified of heights but but gosh darn it he was going to go down that zip line and so the first year he got halfway up the tower and said oh this is it i'm done i can't go any further we said okay that's fine he comes back down the tower and we're like you can be proud of yourself for doing for getting that far the next year he makes it all the way to the top of the platform gets strapped into the zip line and sits down and can't do it can't go off so we we let him down and he comes down the tower and he's like i made it even further we said yeah you did and then finally in the third year i got to see this kid with the biggest smile on his face go down that zip line and um for me it was a message of perseverance and facing your challenges but also um you know they how much these kids can teach us about resilience and perseverance um it was really incredible just to see him grow each from year to year and challenge himself a little bit more and go a little bit further and have a little more fun every year and can you talk to us a little bit about what got you from wanting to be a volunteer to wanting to go into the field full time sure so um part of the way that happened is because of the other volunteers that were at alpha point so the main camp counselors that have worked at alpha point for many years now were already in the field so they i was fortunate enough to kind of be mentored by them through the years so the more you know i got to see you know the terminology of orientation mobility being used around the campground and getting familiar with talking to kids about their disabilities and then i got to talk to the leaders about what they did for jobs and um how what made them love it and then the more i learned about it i was then able to go and job shadow one of the other camp counselors and see actually see what they did for a job and i decided you know what this is something i really want to do and just kind of fell in love with the idea of being able to be a part of giving a student more independence in their life thank you sounds sounds very good jake i saw you drop something in the chat about some notifications can you just in case somebody doesn't see the chat mention that to everybody again what it is that you wanted them to sign up for yeah so on our alpha point youth website landing page uh we will post registration all information on different programs uh and uh activities that we have throughout the year this is also a good place uh towards the bottom of the screen to sign up for our youth email notifications so we will send you uh any upcoming um programs that we have in open registration on how to do that uh we also will you know just put out any information that we would think would be relevant for uh youth that are visually impaired and blind on how to get involved with alpha point and then right after this i'll post uh we also have a alpha point uh facebook group and it's called apple point parent connect and this is a closed group just for parents of children that are visually impaired and blind and also vision professionals it's a great landing page and platform to talk about you know really anything that's on on the minds of parents we also share information about scholarships our programs and registration we share through here as well it's just a really great resource and knowledge honestly for parents or vision professionals to get all the updated information on programs and services that apple point does provide throughout the year okay thank you so don't forget to sign up there for those email notifications and that facebook group that we'll put out there and as jake said that is a closed group so um there will not be spammers that get in there you have to be accepted into the group with any other closed group so sign up the link that's going to be provided for you and someone will will get you approved and feel free to join that conversation as well do we have any other questions that have come in if not this is a good time to do that before we get into one last thing we wanted to talk about today so no no additional questions uh at this particular point in time and lexi i will i will do the screen sharing for this one okay okay okay so uh lexi do you want to tell us we have a you had a video that you wanted to uh to show us can you give us a little bit of background about this video yeah so um did we lose lexi um and this video will give you a little bit of perspective from a tech camper and [Music] it'll the camper will talk about their interest in technology you'll hear about the distance that you'd travel to attend this camp and then it also mentions some of the different softwares and technologies that were introduced throughout the week so all right and again we're going to show the clip from the newscast correct correct okay all right and this is the one you shared with me yesterday correct yes okay all right all right here we go if we have any problems with sound let me know okay the possibilities are endless i'm a very like tech savvy person like i've done coding fifteen-year-old lira thompson and the words tech savvys go hand in hand you just know how to do a lot of stuff on computers and have been really interested in it for like a long time you can also identify them by the buttons they have it's the reason she signed up for alpha points technology camp having a camp that's all about technology but makes it adapted for visually impaired people is just like a great thing she's one of 30 kids and they're here from everywhere as far as washington state to san juan puerto rico bigger than four it'll run this code they're learning about different software and adaptive technologies such as audible screen readers and zooming magnifying devices these kids can do any anything their sighted peers can do we just have to do a little bit differently this week students were introduced to the program code jumper what you were looking at in there are nodes and receivers and essentially the students will put together a song [Music] that already has some pre-written code behind it and when they put that song together and the melody and notes in the correct order then they complete the line of coding why is it not playing the twinkle anymore when you get it correct you get the right song and when you get it wrong you get the wrong wrong sound that comes out of that so that you know when you can learn without actually have to visually see any of the lines of coding for lira this camp not only provides an opportunity to learn okay play star but brings forth ideas of her own for the future as someone who has made who is interested in like web developing and has worked on a few like just projects for fun i always make sure for example to add alt text to images so that a screen reader can know what so a blind person can know what the image is or to have big text and high contrast so that it's it's easily readable so i think that just making everything accessible as accessible as you can whether you think it's important as a sighted person or not is the biggest thing you could do so today is their last all right that wraps up the uh the video um i don't see any other questions in the in the chat so um i guess lexi um jake uh rebecca any other final comments paul and you find their comments before we uh before we wrap up nope other than if you guys are interested in attending any of our camps uh and you guys have any questions feel free to reach out to me and i would be happy to help yeah and take advantage of those different resources there's plenty of things to look at to give you an idea of what exactly is involved and as you look at at the the web pages you should get a pretty good idea of of all the things that are going to be going on and get in touch with with flexi and they can get things going i would like to say uh thank you guys for this opportunity aph rebecca and uh alexa great job on uh hosting alpha point and allowing us to tell individuals uh about our camps and our programs and our services uh summer is a very very busy time for us and we're on the go 24 7 but always have time to answer any questions or get you signed up for programs i provided lexi's email and contact information and direct phone number in the chat option and you guys you can always find our information hers or i mine on our alpha point uh facebook youth page and rebecca thank you as well for joining us and uh i look forward to seeing you in person soon um and uh again thank you and everybody have a great week we uh we echo the the thanks as well for you guys taking the time to share with us what you guys are doing in kansas city and paul i guess that is summer camping alpha point style huh it is thank you for joining us and uh get in touch with with the output folks if you have any additional questions

2022-04-07 12:19

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