Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program
APPLICATION INFORMATION:
CYEP costs $125 for the first child and $100 for each additional sibling. Preference is given to returning campers and children who have particular academic or financial need for the program. Families should submit one camper application for each child who wishes to enroll in camp. To learn more about CYEP, email CYEP@pbha.org
Staff Contact Information:
Bryan Zuluaga
bryan@pbha.org
Student Director Contact Information:
CYEP@pbha.org
About CYEP
PBHA's Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program, or CYEP, began in 1982 through the joint efforts of Harvard students and parents from Roosevelt Towers, a public housing development in East Cambridge. The program was an expansion of a student-run summer program that had operated out of Roosevelt Towers since 1964. CYEP quickly grew to include children from the nearby Washington Elms and Newtowne Court housing developments. Later, a site at Jefferson Park in North Cambridge was added to meet growing demand.Today, CYEP serves 160 low-income children at three sites across Cambridge for seven weeks each summer. Like all of our Summer Urban Program camps, CYEP engages campers in mornings of academic enrichment, afternoons of educational field trips, and artistic, cultural, and service-learning workshops throughout the week, along with two overnight camping trips and a day-long final trip.CYEP works to prevent summer learning loss, providing an academic foundation from which students may actively and enthusiastically follow their own curiosity. CYEP hopes to inspire creativity and ambition within each and every camper; foster cooperation between campers, staff, and the community; and forge strong ties between youth, parents, and community members.
WORK AT CYEP
CYEP, like all Summer Urban Program camps, is run by college students who serve as directors and senior counselors, or teachers, in the camp. Directors oversee all camp operations, working through the spring and summer to train and supervise camp staff, manage finances, and ensure high program quality. Learn more about directing CYEP.
Senior counselors manage a classroom of 10 children throughout the summer, implementing a self-designed academic curriculum, supervising field trips and community service projects, and supporting the operations of their camp. Learn more about working as a senior counselor.
In addition to its college-age staff, CYEP employs high school students as junior counselors. Teens partner with a senior counselor to co-teach a class and participate in leadership workshops throughout the summer. The majority of SUP's junior counselors once attended the same camp in which they work; many junior counselors at CYEP were once campers in the program. Learn more about working as a junior counselor (application coming soon).
This Camp must comply with regulations of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and be licensed by the Cambridge Board of Health.