Summer Youth Corporation (Dló̜ó̜’ Yázhí Day Camp)
Grants Awarded
For its 12th season in 2026, Dló̜ó̜' Yázhí Day Camp, utilizing Thoreau Community Center, will engage 40-50 young campers, with most identifying as Diné. The five-week program will foster self-esteem, resilience, and connectedness through activities like sports, art, and Diné language/culture immersion, and promote appreciation for nature to counter screen-dependency. The outcome includes enhancing participants' problem-solving, social abilities, and attitude toward nature. Simultaneously, the camp is dedicated to cultivating a leadership cycle within the local community by offering leadership training to campers with the vision of their future employment.
Dló̜ó̜’ Yázhí Day Camp is a free nonprofit summer camp for kids in and around Thoreau, NM. Founded in 2015, our goal is to foster kids’ self-esteem, resilience, and connectedness, all protective factors against youth suicide. Every day, counselors lead campers in Nature Explorers, Sports, Art, Cooking, and a variety of other activities in and around the Thoreau Community Center. The camp’s mission hinges on relationship-building and creating a sense of belonging for campers. That is why camp programming is co-created before and during the summer by our entire staff. Programming is tailored to the needs and interests of individual children and our staff members’ areas of expertise. Each day incorporates both scheduled activities, choice activity time, and group team-building and reflection activities. Camp is funded by individual and corporate donations, grants and awards, and fundraisers such as t-shirt sales and basketball tournaments. DYDC has received funding in the past from the New Mexico Children’s Foundation and the Association on American Indian Affairs. We were granted the Dale Earnhardt Legend Leadership Award in 2016 and won the $100,000 Teach for America Social Innovation Award in 2018.