Welcome

Sending your youth to a two, six, or 20-night MYNA camp can be the most exciting experience your youth can ever have. However, we at MYNA understand the concerns that parents may have. What will my child learn? Who will be teaching them? Who are their counselors? What safety measures do you take at camps to ensure our child’s safety? These are all valid concerns that we would like to take a few minutes and answer by explaining MYNA’s policies and procedures with respect to campers, counselors, speakers, knowledge, and campsite.

What will my child learn?

MYNA takes input from youth across North America to come up with themes for every camp cycle (spring, summer, winter). This theme that youth decide on will dictate the center of all the sessions, lectures, discussions, and workshops that will occur at the camp. Past themes included topics such as “End Oppression,” in which youth learned not just the traditional and nuance definitions of oppression, but also how we can be civically engaged members of the North American society. Another theme in the past was “Seasons of the Heart.” This 2015 winter camp theme aimed to teach our youth the importance of our hearts, the multitude of positions it can be in, and how to deal appropriately with the negative states our hearts might go to, may Allah protect us from them all. It is important that youth walk out of MYNA camps with a spiritual high, a love for their fellow members of society, and an embedding of the Sunnah we deploy to our youth through our themes.

How does MYNA vet speakers? Who are they?

The MYNA speaker pool is a multi-level-approved list. These are speakers that are not only familiar with MYNA but have an art of connecting with youth and leading them to a positive thought process, engagement, and outlook. Mufti Hussein Kamani, from Chicago, is a perfect example of a young, extremely knowledgeable scholar who helped youth have great fun learning how to make wudu without having them feel embarrassed for not knowing it. It was Habeeb Quadri, a school principal from Chicago, whose Jannah Money concept made youth remark afterwards on how they should look at their actions and the power of good deeds! Dr. Jawad Shah, neurosurgeon from Flint, gives youth a door to marvel at our faith with medical anecdotes, deep tafseer of ayahs, and scientific miracles of the Quran and sunnah that leave youth tugging him by the arms, asking for more stories during lunch. Sr. Zahra Billoo, CAIR Executive Director, has explained civil rights, what Muslims have given North America, and the key roles that we play in society, leaving youth with a sense of, “This is my country and I have a lot to offer it, so I will give back to it and make it a better place.” These are just a few examples. MYNA has a Personal Development (PD) committee that reviews, discusses, and approves all speakers that attend MYNA camps. These names are always available. Depending on response rates, we sometimes can’t always confirm speakers until the last minute, and don’t always have the specific list of speakers for a camp that far in advance. However, we do always know that they come from the same engaging list mentioned above.

MYNA has been blessed with a counselor selection process that is steps up from even the Boy Scouts of America. For any given camp cycle we begin by forming the counselor selection committee or CSC by combining all of the various camps advisers plus the YPSD staff into this CSC. The CSC begins by reviewing the application and editing it as they see fit for the times. Counselor selection is a 4 step rigorous process:

  1. Counselors must first fill in this detailed and case-study based Application

  2. ISNA (our parent organization) performs a security background check on each applicant with different levels of law enforcement.

  3. Each applicant, unless they have been a counselor at a camp in the past 12 months and have a pre-approval from a CSC member, is interviewed by at least 2 CSC members with questions aiming at ascertaining the following

    1. How would the applicant deal with certain scenarios that can come up at camp

    2. How they would deal with youth having various personalities, like introverts, extroverts, anger, disciplinary issues etc.

    3. How the applicant envisions being a role model

    4. Their plan for long term connection to the youth

    5. What they can bring to the camp spiritually, socially, educationally, and civically.

  4. Interview responses are then reviewed by a few CSC.

Then a decision is made based on interview responses and background check results.

Our counselor to camper ratio is in the top tier in the industry at average of 1:6 with 2 groups working and living together so there are more youth in a group and more adults for support.

And still prior to camp Counselors must go through a two-part (1 and half day) counselor training before camp which goes over MYNA’s

  1. Rules and responsibilities

  2. Youth protection policy

  3. Health and safety awareness

  4. Camper/counselor etiquette

  5. Safety rules

  6. And much more

The Counselor Selection Process

The most important concern MYNA and parents have! We take our youth and their safety very seriously. When it comes to camps and the current climate of Muslims and society we work hard with multiple levels of the local community where our camps are being held to do our very best in providing a safe environment for our youth to develop and grow. The actual steps we take prior and during each camp are the following:

  1. Campsites are asked for details and implementation regarding safety measures and apparatus they have on site. This includes

    1. Main entrance gates closed at nights

    2. Overnight (cell phone based) staff contact

    3. Campsite staff always visible throughout day

    4. For MYNA to have a few of our adults with multiple walkie-talkies on channels for easy communication

    5. Ask them to make contact with local law enforcement

  2. We contact local law enforcement and let them know we will be there. Most Sheriff’s departments will drive by the campsite entrance at least once a night. And visit us once during camp to meet with youth.

  3. We let the closest hospital to camp know which days we will be at camp and the approx. number of attendees. This is a practice we adopted from the Boy Scouts of America.

  4. Camp policy does not allow firearms on premises.

  5. Every camp will have 2 adults that are our owl staff. These 2 adults remain up all night and walk/view the campsite. They will help with lights out and Fajr Wake up. To youth they will be the 2 cool older adults making sure we are following the rules at night and to the parents and organizers they are our night safety staff.

  6. Counselors will be trained on camp-specific safety procedures in events of situations arising.

Safety is not something that we want to be a viewable object or something that can change the environment of camp. Our security measures are present but we aim at having them be unaffecting to youth. MYNA has 30 years of camp programming experience behind it and will Insha’Allah do our best to ensure a safe, healthy, fun, uplifting environment for our Youth.

What safety measures do you take at camps to ensure our child’s safety?