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In 1989, 17 students and their adult sponsors embarked on their first experience of "workcamp". For a week during that summer, the team traveled to Bolivar, Tennessee to do home repair work for low-income and disabled residents. After a couple of years the team reasoned that there are many under-resourced families right within our own community that could benefit from the type of work we do by staying closer within New England.
Inviting churches, nationwide to join us began in 1995, when a youth group from Illinois expressed an interest in joining our young people. It was during this time, because of the increased number of youth and the need for more residents’ homes, we began working closely with Community Action Programs.
Our current directors, Ken and Marcia have been providing oversight to workcampNE beginning in 2003, with Ken spending 4 years as a crew leader prior t o joining camp in his current director’s role. Six others who pitched in to help lead the camp currently take a less active roll in the “off season,” but continue to participate by helping out in a variety of capacities during the weeks of camp and two continue to serve on the Board of Directors.
The year 2006 saw us grow to two weeks with 350 individuals working on 45 different housing sites. The following year, workcampNE organized as an independent 501(c)(3) and added their leadership program taking advantage of Ken’s 10+ years of growing leaders across he U.S. through learning and development, succession planning, and organizational development.
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