At PALS Programs, our mission has always been to create inclusive camp experiences for young adults with Down syndrome and their peers. We believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to connect, grow, and have fun in an environment where differences are celebrated. This summer, we are thrilled to announce a new partnership with Brother Rice High School.
PALS is fortunate to have a Board of Directors that provides guidance and support for our operations and bolsters our mission of inclusion. We are excited to introduce three new members who joined the board in the past year.
PALS is thrilled to announce we have been accepted to be a certified organization for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. In the realm of non-profit organizations dedicated to making a positive impact, PALS Programs is eager to kick-off Summer 2024 and celebrate 20 years of impact and stories.
At the heart of every PALS summer camp experience lies the spirit of inclusivity, transformed lives, and real authentic relationships. As we gear up for our 20th anniversary, PALS faces a perennial challenge – the need for more male volunteers. One-to-one pairings are one of the hallmarks of PALS Programs, and we believe that the PALS family can support our efforts in recruiting dedicated male volunteers.
As we are gearing up to celebrate the 20th anniversary of PALS, we are excited for the slate of programs to take place in 2024! Check out the dates & locations on our summer page! How did you select the locations for this season?
At PALS, our mission is to create inclusive camp experiences for individuals with Down syndrome and their peers. We know the impact and power behind one-to-one friendships that are created in the week-long experience during the summer. As a sibling of someone with Down syndrome, this is why I initially gravitated towards PALS.
Black History Month provides us with an additional opportunity to reflect on the diversity of our community and the value that comes from the many identities we all share. This month in particular is a time to honor the rich history, contributions, and experiences of Black Americans. In our mission to inspire a world of belonging for all, celebrating diversity and inclusion becomes core to our work and impact as an organization.
The primary focus of PALS will always be our week-long summer camps with all the trimmings: one-to-one pairings, karaoke and dance parties, fun off-campus adventures, and of course PALS Olympics. But the PALS Magic is something that keeps us going all year round. We wanted to create spaces where our friends, both old and new, could get a little taste of that Magic while summer still felt far away. So we tried something new: PALS Pop-ups.
At PALS, we have heard the sentiment many times before- "I wouldn't be where I am today without my summers at PALS," or "the trajectory of my career completely shifted after spending a week at PALS," or "the memories from PALS are some of the best of my life." But what is it about a week-long experience at PALS that fulfills our mission of changing attitudes, transforming lives, and inspiring a world of belonging? Many of us enter thinking we are here to volunteer and change lives, and likely we will, but we leave with far more.
A few times a year, the staff at PALS have an opportunity to meet with one another to build team and work together to improve our programming. This past December, the team convened in Baltimore, Maryland, where we spent 3 days getting to know each other and collaborating on ways to work better together.
Happy New Year from the PALS Staff! We rang in 2023 at PALS Holiday in Los Angeles, California.
PALS Holiday first launched in 2017 on the east coast as off season programming for our community to reconnect and ring in the New Year together. This year we were thrilled to bring this program across the country at our first-ever PALS Holiday Los Angeles. This proved to be a great opportunity to engage with the local community of Los Angeles as one of our ten hubs outlined in the PALS Strategic Plan.
PALS Summer 2023 is less than 200 days away! The application for Partners and Peers launches on January 1 and we are eager to share more details about what you can expect for our upcoming summer programs.
Following each summer season, PALS Staff strives to gather feedback from every member of our community as described in a recent blog post. We understand the value of hearing each individual’s opinion and experience at PALS to create the highest quality programs possible. Decisions are influenced by community feedback in order to constantly improve our programs for the following year. Here are a few adaptations you can expect to see this next summer.
Thanks to a connection through current volunteer Tori Clayton, the Student Pennsylvania State Education Associate (SPSEA) invited PALS to present at their conference at Westchester University on November 5. When considering what would be most relevant to a room full of aspiring teachers, we kept coming back to one idea - how immersive experiences outside of the classroom, like PALS, make teachers more confident, motivated, and passionate when they step back inside the school building.
We often ask members of our PALS Family "Why PALS?" to learn how our mission has impacted their lives. In honor of the recent Leadership Application launch, we asked Abe Patterson, Program Lead for PALS Los Angeles in 2022, to share what PALS means to him. Read how leadership has impacted his life and how it could for you as well.
Data is something everyone uses to help make decisions every day. Whether you are using GPS to see if there is traffic on the way to your destination, checking the weather forecast for later this week, or tracking the steps you take on a smart watch, data is a major part of our everyday lives. PALS relies on data to see how we’re doing, where and how to improve, and to hear directly from all of the people who attend our programs.
PALS is delighted to announce the recent notification that our week-long summer programs have earned ACA-Accredited® Camp status! This is verification from the American Camp Association® that our camp, during multiple site visits over the course of the summer, complied with up to 266 industry-established health and safety standards, which are recognized by courts of law and government regulators as the standards of the camp industry.
