Weekly After School Programs


The Camp Swift Youth Foundation has partnered with the 21st Century Community Learning Center and their “After the Bell” weekly programs at Palomino Intermediate and Palomino Primary Elementary schools.

Because children love attending summer camp, the name Camp Swift is a huge draw in the schools that send children to our residential camp each summer. In order for children to attend our “After the Bell” program, they have to first attend two hours of academic, teacher run instruction.

Without these programs, many children are unsupervised at home and face neighborhood safety issues. Most of these children receive breakfast and lunch at school, and dinner is included during “After the Bell.”

Camp Swift incorporates the following guiding principles that research suggests creates positive outcomes in the emotional and behavioral health of their participants:

1.    Focused and Intentional Strategy

Clear set of goals, target specific skills and deliberately plan all aspects of the program with a youth development framework in mind.

2.    Exposure (duration, intensity and breadth)

Programs are designed to:  a)provide pre-teens with a sufficient number of hours per week over and extended period of time to achieve program outcome goals; and b) allow pre-teens to attend a variety of activities.

3.    Supportive Relationships

Programs emphasize positive adult-youth relationships regardless of the curriculum.

4.    Family Engagement

Programs strive to include families through various strategies such as clear communication and a welcoming environment.

5.    Cultural Competence

Programs have diverse staff whose backgrounds are reflective of participants and who create practices and policies that:  a) make services available to [and inclusive of] a variety of populations; and b) help participants understand and value a broad range of cultures.

6.    Continuous Program Improvement

Programs strengthen quality through an ongoing and integrated process of targeted staff training, coaching and monitoring, and data collection and analysis.