Summer Archives

Leah Chisholm La Plant, SD - Simply Smiles

This summer I was in La Plant, South Dakota on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation. I partnered with Simply Smiles, a not-for-profit organization who focuses on community development and programming. My project primarily involved restructuring the summer camp to include psychotherapy techniques and providing safety outlets where the children could escape from negative home environments. This included creating a volunteer handbook to ensure a planned schedule of camp activities, leading a biweekly book club, and planning camp field trips. In the last few weeks, it became necessary to incorporate suicide prevention into my project, by reaching out to specialists for training and resources, and by creating a summer youth leadership program.