Royal Family Kids camp helps build foster children’s futures

For Shanley Alexander, it was a leap of faith based on gut instinct to go from zero to three children in a month.

After 12 years of volunteering in the Royal Family Kids camp through Costa Mesa’s Rock Harbor church, seven as a camp counselor and five as dean of women along with being a year-round mentoring director, becoming a foster parent was a perfect fit.

The decision to drastically change her life started with the 7-year-old girl who had such a hard time in big groups that she isolated herself.

“She was overstimulated by all the noise of the group activities, so I climbed rocks and spent meal times with her,” Alexander said. “I spent quality time with her and got to know her — something I haven’t had in the past. Usually I’m the one putting out fires and moving in-between different campers.”

Alexander, who had formed a bond with the girl and soon after with her 8-year-old brother, discussed the possibility of foster placement with her husband, Phil, also a camp counselor. Although he hadn’t had the opportunity to spend as much time with the kids, he concurred that it would be a blessing to bring them into their lives.

When the Alexanders inquired about the children to their social worker, they were asked if they would be willing to take the teenage sister too. The children were staying at Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange.

“It’s amazing, crazy how it all worked out. Had we waited one more day the three kids would have been separated since Orangewood couldn’t find placement [for all three],” Alexander said.

Helping children from hard places is the goal of Santa Ana-based Royal Family Kids according to President Chris Carmichael.

“Southern California is ground zero for the foster children population,” Carmichael said. “With 10% of all American foster children located within the five counties in Southern California, we don’t have to go around the world to serve orphans, they’re located right here in our neighborhoods.”

Royal Family Kids is an international organization that recruits and trains church congregants to teach mentoring programs and host weeklong camps for local children in foster care. In its 31 years, it has grown from 37 kids to more than 110,000.

Carmichael emphasized that even though a church is organizing it, the camp is not evangelical nor does it have a religious program. He said the purpose of camp is not to convert children but rather to demonstrate love.

The Royal Family Kids camp focuses on foster kids ages 6 to 12, providing them the opportunity to learn skills that can move them in a positive direction for life.

“If they don’t have a community that loves them, then they look somewhere else,” Carmichael said. “If we don’t provide a positive community for them, someone else will provide them a different community.”

He explained that the outcomes for foster children are notoriously poor once they age out of the system. He said 50% are incarcerated within two years, 50% of the girls get pregnant by 19 and 75% of the children who are sexually exploited are foster children. “Easy pickings for criminals and pimps,” he said.

The objective of the organization, therefore, is to develop long-lasting, trust-based relationships that will bring hope and change to the foster child’s future.

Those who serve foster kids come from multi-denominational churches and multi-generational backgrounds, Carmichael said.

“It doesn’t really matter which church community comes to us, what matters is they understand the heart of the orphan, in this case foster kids,” he said.

A number of churches in Southern California work with Royal Family to provide the five-day, overnight camp followed by a mentoring program. For that, each child is matched with a volunteer who provides weekly companionship — sharing outside activities and new experiences.

Royal Family Kids is focused on serving more kids through partnerships and therefore helps groups like the Louis Zamperini Foundation develop a mentoring program of its own based on the Royal Family example.

According to the Rock Harbor camp director Jim Farmer, volunteers take responsibility for sponsorship of each child. They raise funds, with the help of friends, family and employers to send a kid to camp. The next Rock Harbor camp will consist of 85 campers and 100 volunteers from St. Andrew’s and Irvine Presbyterian churches.

Farmer, who has been involved for 10 years, said the program is a good way for volunteers to start getting involved in the foster care community.

“Kids in foster homes are abused, abandoned and neglected. I really got myself into a panic after I learned that,” he said.

The kids haven’t been around an environment where healthy adults care for them. And, when they learn that the counselors actually raised the money just so they can be with them and are not being paid, they are blown away.

Farmer explained that the volunteers are trained to be there for the children and show them what a healthy relationship looks like. Sometimes that means reminding volunteers to stay focused on the ultimate goal.

“Even if you are tired and don’t want to go swimming, be there for them, be there to help make it the best week of their life,” he said. “It’s the best time to show sacrificial love for that camper.”

For more information, visit rockharbor.royalfamilykids.org.

Susan Hoffman is a contributor to Times Community News.