Purpose-built play for youth

This summer, a trio of UM occupational therapy (OT) students implemented a new inclusive program at Mini U, a long-running camp for children held at the Fort Garry campus.  

The pilot program, titled “Made for U,” was designed for children that may require higher levels of adaptations to be successful in a camp setting, such as kids living with autism, cerebral palsy or intellectual disabilities. The program offered a daily routine that allowed the young campers to thrive and be fully engaged in activities built specifically for their needs. 

Thirty children between the ages of five and 16 took part in the program over two one-week camps, July 27-31 and August 3-7. 

Mini U has offered programming for children of all levels for several years, but previously the only option for children with disabilities was having one-on-one support with camp leaders with experience or interest in working with children with diverse needs. 

Building the program 

Ashley Gagnon, associate director of children’s programming for the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, which oversees Mini U, said the Mini U team wanted to create an environment that would specifically create a space for children who are currently underserved.  

“Inclusion is one of our core values and a part of all the work we do in creating an engaging environment for all of our participants … but for the past number of years, we’ve recognized that there are campers for whom there are limits on our environment that cannot be adapted,” she said.  

The Mini U team created the program with occupational therapist Camilla Thorne-Tjomsland and her partners at the not-for-profit organization Full Circle Community, in collaboration with fieldwork outreach developer Julie Braga from UM’s OT department.  

Together, they explored how to engage with second-year OT students from the College of Rehabilitation Sciences to achieve the vision for an inclusive Mini U program. Jensyn Woitas, Kelsey Gillan and Brianne Pilon were brought in to create the program’s content as part of their fieldwork placements.  

“Integrating student learning into this experience felt really important, as creating experiential learning opportunities for students is at the core of what we do,” Gagnon said. 

Before planning the camp activities, the students and Mini U leadership team held an assessment night on campus to determine the needs and the interests of the campers. Woitas, Gillan and Pilon then had four weeks to create the program. 

“We spent a lot of those weeks researching, learning about sensory and regulation strategies, finding equipment and joining the regular Mini U programming that was happening to get an idea of what could work for our camps,” Gillan said. 

“And then, the last two weeks, we ran the camp, facilitated it, organized it and helped run activities.” 

“Mini U provided us with the spaces and let us be in charge of everything else. We planned all of our activities from start to finish,” added Woitas.

Made for U was supported by 15 inclusion leaders, two occupational therapists, a speech language pathologist and another fieldwork student, Rebecca Tessmer from the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management. 

The program delivered a tailored experience for campers that included theme days focused on sports, animals and science.  

Pilon said that on the science day, the kids created homemade slime and observed volcano experiments. “They loved the different sensory experiences they got to be a part of.”  

Woitas noted it was important for the team to build a routine into the camp days. 

“We started each day with a morning meeting, where we were able to provide [the campers] with structure and a visual schedule of what to expect throughout the day, which was really nice, just to kind of create that predictability,” she said. 

All three students said the camp was a great opportunity to develop and implement a program, gain leadership experience and work with kids with diverse needs.

Pilon said she already has work lined up supporting in-home services to pediatric clients and their families.

“I just love working with kids,” she said. “We learned that the kids would tell their parents all about camp and that they were so excited to come back the next day. That’s really what camp is about, and I just loved that.”