Chicago Survivors Storytellers Summer Camp helps kids, teens heal after violent loss
One summer camp in Chicago is helping kids who've lost family members to violence with storytelling.
The mission behind the Chicago Survivors Storytellers summer camp is to help kids find hope after tragedy.
It certainly sounds like any other summer camp filled with activities and friendship, but every child shares a story no child should have to tell.
Eight-year-old Jennifer's father, Lewis, was Tenika Blackman's son. Blackman is a volunteer with the summer camp.
"Remember telling you he got excited, he got invited to the Father's Day picnic and all of the fathers were out there with their kids," Blackman said.
She still vividly remembers the call she got on June 27, 2020, that her 22-year-old son had been fatally shot. She says grief is hard enough.
"I don't think I am dealing with it. I've come to terms with it," she said.
But helping a child through it …
"When she comes and asks me, you know, where he at or what do you think he'd be doing if he was here or the times when she asks me why was they shooting at a block party ... I thought block parties are supposed to be fun," she said.
She started to worry that Jennifer was becoming withdrawn.
"We need to see space for children who are grieving because when they don't do it in a healthy way then we begin to see other behaviors later on," said JaShawn Hill, executive director of Chicago Survivors.
Hill says the name "Grief Camp" didn't quite resonate, but "Storytellers Camp" did.
"A lot of children connect around stories, but not just the single story of the loss, but the many stories that they carry," she said.
She says they've found creative ways to tell those stories for the last four years—for kids ages 5 to 18—culminating in a makers class where kids make photo keepsakes of the loved ones they've lost.
Blackman says it's helped bring Jennifer out of her shell, and volunteering has changed her direction in life as well.
"I want to be a youth grief counselor," she said. "Every day we're losing someone, and I feel like if I start with kids, maybe when they grow up they can make a change."
The Storytellers Camp serves about 75 kids every summer with the goal of expanding next year.
