Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care

9221 Ward Parkway
Kansas City, MO 64114
phone: 816-276-2620
website: www.kchospice.org

Camp Carousel is a weekend camp for children between the ages of 5 and 18 and their parents or guardians. It has been serving Kansas City’s children since 1996. Children are referred to Camp Carousel by school counselors, teachers, churches and psychotherapists in private practice. Camp Carousel staff consists of family counselors and licensed social workers, music and art therapists and community volunteers.

Camp Carousel will provide a therapeutic camp experience in 2011 for 15-18 children between 5 and 18 (plus 20 parents or guardians) who are grieving the loss of a loved one. It allows children to share in therapeutic activities as a family and to meet other families who have experienced a loss. Parents and guardians learn how to better communicate with and parent children who are grieving and how to grieve, themselves, in healthy ways.

Camp Carousel’s goals are to help:
• Normalize the grief experience.
• Provide opportunities to memorialize a loved one.
• Provide opportunities for emotional release in a safe way.
• Provide opportunities for children to meet others who have experienced a loss.

Children are split into groups based on their ages (5-8; 9-11; 12-18). Two professional staff members and three to five volunteers are assigned to each group to assist with activities. While activities may vary slightly from year to year, they are basically the same. The children:
• Write songs. Each group writes a song, and each child contributes lines about the person in his or her life who has died.
• Participate in the Art Studio that offers a variety of art therapy projects such as drawing life-size maps of their bodies and assigning feelings to different areas on their maps.
• Take a nature hike to provide time in nature to process thoughts and feelings.
• Share in a remembering ritual and release balloons.
• Benefit from the company of therapy dogs.
• Enjoy a campfire evening, with all ages sharing the activity together.

At Camp Carousel adults attend a Parenting Workshop addressing topics such as awareness of their own feelings about the family’s loss, dependency issues of children, acting out behaviors, and how to be truthful with children in an age-appropriate way.