The Price of Reuniting Siblings: Lynn Price's Personal Mission for Kids

Document Author: National CASA - Carla Spaccarotelli, Editor
Publication: The Connection, Winter 03
Posted: 7/03

Take a moment to imagine the world without your sisters and brothers..
Imagine your children without each other..
Imagine if your memories of shared secrets, holidays, vacations, family celebrations, laughter and even a little sibling bickering disappeared from your memory.
Imagine knowing your brother lives across town and yet you never see him.
Imagine attending the same school as your sister, but living in separate homes.

For thousands of children separated from siblings while in foster care, this situation is not imaginary. It's real.

Lynn Price knows firsthand the confusion and pain of being separated from a sibling while living in the foster care system. At the age of 8, Lynn learned of her biological sister living across town. It wouldn't be until later as young adults when Lynn and her sister, Andi, would start a solid friendship. Lynn often uses these thought provoking questions to create awareness of this powerful bond. She reminds us, "Siblings are often taken for granted and yet, the sibling relationship can be our longest relationship in life."

As this key sibling relationship evolved and as Lynn became a CASA volunteer, she was inspired to develop Camp to Belong. In addition to the flagship summer camps reuniting siblings living apart, Camp To Belong is committed to year-round advocacy for the sibling bond. They offer assistance with sibling advocacy, policymaking and expert testimony.

CASA and Camp to Belong: A Smart Fit

While learning the intricacies of the foster care system as a CASA volunteer in Las Vegas, NV, Lynn realized her experience as a foster child provided a unique perspective in helping kids. "I know how it feels to be that child and I was able to ask the right questions." says Lynn. As the Camp to Belong idea blossomed, her connection to CASA helped in many ways. "The Las Vegas CASA program staff and my CASA training class absolutely honored and embraced me for my experiences and time in foster care," notes Lynn. "CASA volunteers have shown so much support of Camp to Belong. There is a unique and respectful bond between what we all do." Many camp counselors have become CASA volunteers, and many CASA volunteers serve as camp counselors.

Her involvement with CASA continued when she moved to Colorado. Colorado CASA State Director, Barbara Mattison, is the first to share accolades about Lynn's commitment, support and work for CASA. "She lives her cause and when you have the chance to work with her, you she how evident this really is," said Mattison. Colorado CASA has worked with Lynn on several state CASA conferences and has drawn on her experience and perspective as a presenter, conference planning team member and expert on keeping siblings together. "She has been a help to us in so many ways."

Beyond Crafts and Campfires

A week at Camp to Belong is more than horseback riding, swimming, crafts and campfires. Siblings are given the opportunity to reconnect, share new experiences, create memories, express themselves creatively and, for some siblings, heal fragmented relationships. Sometimes sibling campers start the week off just trying to be friends and relationships move from there. Camp to Belong is not always a media moment with siblings jumping in to each other's arms; kids often need some time to reconnect.

The Life Seminar Program at Camp to Belong is offered to campers approaching emancipation from the foster care system. Campers are educated about choices for the future and experience a field trip to a local university where counselors, career planners and other experts offer information and encouragement about life choices. Too often, "kids in care don't have the luxury of having someone help them look at options post-care, and it is often easy to write off kids who are leaving the system," says Lynn. She dreams of a long-term mentoring program between emancipated youth and those leaving the system.

Camp to Belong is not only valuable for the campers. Each summer, volunteer counselors help create an atmosphere where kids feel comfortable being themselves and letting go. Kids are given a safe, supportive environment where they are not being evaluated-they are just being brothers and sisters. Lynn notes how powerful it is for someone in a support role to serve as a camp counselor. CASA volunteers and other professionals in the child advocacy and social services fields attest to the power of spending time at camp and coming to a deeper realization about the sibling connection.

Helping Separated Siblings

Although a child doesn't attend camp with their CASA volunteer, foster parent or caseworker, these 'support relationships' are vital to a child attending camp. Support team members understand and value the dynamic experience and unique intensity of camp. The Camp to Belong vision is to see these support teams held accountable while working within a system which may keep them apart from each other during care. Camp to Belong success is built on the notion of honoring the sibling bond before, during and after camp. Because sibling separation involves many types of living situations (foster home, group home, foster/adopt home, biological parent(s), kinship care), many unique situations can arise. Sibling reunification is complex (for example, a child could act out once they return home or perhaps a child hold a grudge against the sibling who called authorities) and support team members are key in providing understanding and support.

There are many ways to support sibling reunification and the Camp to Belong mission: sponsor a sibling group from your program area, become a camp counselor, or work toward awareness of sibling connections by talking to public groups, government agencies and social service organizations.

Nowhere does camp make a bigger or deeper impression than in the eyes and heart of Lynn Price whose Camp to Belong is healing the wounds that time and fate provided. "We just want to inspire these kids to take their destiny into their own hands," she says with deep sincerity. Although Camp to Belong has touched the lives of nearly 900 kids, Lynn shares in awe her camp highlights: the camper now advocates for his sibling relationship after leaving camp, messages siblings share with each other the last day of camp, laughter between sisters, or a camper returning as a counselor-memories that perhaps she wishes she could have shared with her own sister.

Camp to Belong has reunited nearly 900 separated siblings since the program began in 1995; as the program grows, more kids will be able to benefit. Camp opportunities are available in Colorado and California and the Camp to Belong model is scheduled for replication in six additional states. To learn more, visit www.camptobelong.org.