HAZLETON, Pa. — The Hazleton Police Department is looking to help kids who grow up in high-crime environments make better decisions through Camp Aspire.
Camp Aspire is coming back for its third year. It is a free five-day support camp for children ages 7 to 14 who have been victims of crime, lost a parent to drug abuse, or reside in a high-risk area.
Hazleton Police Det. Brett Naprava started the program after working on a drug overdose case she believes could have been prevented.
"It kind of made me start to think, like, we need to do something to kind of bridge that gap. There's therapists, there's all sorts of organizations in the county that help these victims, but I just felt like we, as a police department, needed to do one more thing to kind of help people to make better decisions as a child, and help teach them coping skills, things like that," Det. Naprava said.
The camp at City View Park in Hazleton runs from Monday, July 8, through Friday, July 12.
The program is accepting 60 applicants this year from the Hazleton area and surrounding counties.
"We do a lot of things like body safety. We do coping mechanisms. We do a lot of art therapy and stuff like that. Some of the stuff that we do is made to be therapy-based that they don't quite recognize as therapy. It could be fun, play, stuff like that."
Because the camp is free of charge to parents, it relies on donations from the community to keep it going. Those funds help organizers host a variety of activities for the children.
"Last year, we had a rock-climbing wall come in. We've had a lot of really fun stuff. We've had a reptile guy come in. We've also done team-building activities, teaching them to trust other people within their circle and their peer group, so it's been beneficial for them in those aspects," Det. Naprava said.