Major and Classification
Health and Humanity
Faculty Mentor
Kristy Payne
Department
OT Administration
Research Gateway Project
Program Development; Child Retention and Application of the Social Emotional Learning Strategies Taught by SOLA Peace Camp
Project Abstract
Being a South Los Angeles resident brings an undeniable set of stigmas. The negative representation of the community as violent and crime infested generates the various inequalities and severe discrimation. This is not easy for any of the residents, it can impact their emotional, physical, and mental health. Some people acknowledge the detrimental effects and have decided to start a prevention program called the South Los Angeles Peace Camp, which opens its doors to children of the community ages 5-17 to teach them social emotional learning strategies they can use to combat the stigmas and the detrimental effects. To assess the program’s impact and development I interviewed 4 different parents with questions following the program’s curriculum which focuses on LAFTER: Listening, Asking questions, Feeling communication, Try for a win win, Error acceptance, making it Right in addition to social justice and mindfulness. The interviews gave us insight on the campers’ retention of the lessons and the application of the strategies at home. In my preliminary analysis of the data Peace Camp became a community ground for the campers and the parents even in a pandemic. It created a space for campers to socialize and discuss their emotions during difficultes. The recurring theme from the interviews showed all campers retained the coping strategies and information discussed in camp but not all applied them. Peace camp works closely with many occupational therapists to teach the social emotional learning strategies children in the community can benefit from. They want their campers to unite and work against the stigmas to break barriers together as a community. Though the program needs to work on how many of their campers apply the camp’s strategies, future investigation can help the program expand and show the importance of integrating social emotional learning in the education system.