Teen Village Lead Staff

The JCC Ranch Camp is not just the Denver JCC’s overnight summer camp, it’s also one of the best places to work during the summer. As a staff member, Ranch Camp will become your home away from home as you work to create a community where people can thrive. You’re a hero to your campers; you have the chance to do something you really care about and have a whole lot of fun doing it. Your experience as a staff member is just as important to us as our campers’ experience. That being said: We’re here to serve kids and make sure they are in the safest environment possible while having the time of their lives. 

First and foremost, all our staff are madrichim or counselors.  

All Cabin Staff Responsibilities:

• Take care of your campers by prioritizing their physical, social, and emotional health, safety, and well-being.  

• Work as a team with your co-staff to make sure every day runs smoothly and to the schedule, and complete daily camper notes.   

• Create a community that you want to be a part of and that you want campers to be a part of.   

• Include everyone and make sure everyone is included.   

• Jump into the camp life: ride horses, swim, camp, play games, sing songs, roast s’mores, be ready to do everything the campers do!  

• Know where your campers are and what they are doing all the time.   

• Care for the campers and manage camper behaviors using the tools you learn in Staff Orientation week (We’ll go over positive behavior management techniques, enforcing appropriate safety policies, emergency procedures, camp rules, and more.)  

• Be flexible and adaptable because things change quickly at camp. You have to be able to roll with it.  

• Live in a bunk with your co-staff and your campers.  

• Fill out daily Camper Bunk Notes to track campers’ physical and emotional health, cabin social dynamics, and overall camper wellbeing.  

• And other duties and responsibilities as assigned: you might need to make your campers’ dreams of a beach themed ice-cream campfire song session come true or become your favorite legendary Pokémon for an evening program. 

But our staff aren’t just counselors. We want you to do what matters to you while you’re at camp.  

Want to spend your summer outside, exploring the back country of Colorado and climbing mountains? We have a job for you. Does spending the morning playing soccer and the afternoon creating art make your heart happy? We have a job for you. Want to design a rocket that can make grilled cheese, but also land on Mars? We probably have a job for you, let’s talk. 

Trips Staff Responsibilities:

• As madrichim, you will work as a team with co-staff, ensuring that all our campers have an experience of a lifetime that keeps them coming back for the years to come.  

• Make sure that everything is functioning as it should on the trip and at camp- cleanliness/organization, friendships/social dynamic, routines and rituals, etc. 

• Shape the daily routines and rituals campers follow with their tripmates. 

• Support campers in their day-to-day life on the trail including helping to facilitate personal care routines, providing programmatic adaptations, guiding transitions, providing sensory breaks, mediating conflict resolution, and implement universal supports daily and tier 2 supports as needed. 

• Work on an individual level with campers who have identified needs, such as cognitive, social-emotional, psychological, physical and behavioral needs, to carry out camper care plans and ensure accommodations in care plans are implemented effectively. 

• Have flexibility to step in to help other cabin groups who may need extra daily support.  

• Manage crisis intervention with campers as needed, such as major dysregulation, emotional/mental health struggles, and sensory overload. 

• As a guide on the Teen Village trip, you will take the lead role in leading a 21-day trip (9 - 10 days of backpacking and 9 - 10 days of whitewater rafting, climbing, volunteering and trail work, camping, and other outdoor adventure activities) with a group of up to 12 campers and 2 co-staff. 

• You will build campers’ personal skills; bond the group of campers together and give them the tools they need to be self-sufficient while camping. 

• Assist in assessing trip intensity and adjusting in real time to fit camper needs. 

• Facilitate meal preparation in the backcountry allowing campers to learn how to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner while on the trail and camping.  

• Help campers develop backcountry camping and survival skills. 

• Drive 15 passenger Turtle Top Bus (must be 21). 

• Assist with issuing and return of gear to ensure gear is in good repair.  

• Ensure camper safety through conscientious decision making. 

• Work with your Unit Heads and co-staff to create multiple programs each day for campers on and off the trail that are safe, fun, and memorable. Run the programs while on the trail. 

• Act as the primary point person for communication to and from basecamp both summarizing events occurring on trips to basecamp and passing communication effectively to field staff from basecamp.  

• From recognizing something like hiking their first 14er or a negative social interaction between campers, you always know what’s happening in their bunk. Nothing slips through the cracks.    

Finally, all staff must be able to attend staff orientations and be available to live at camp for the summer season. While we prefer staff to work for the entire summer, we understand if you can’t and encourage you to apply if you can work at least 5 – 6 weeks of our summer season.    

Physical Demands and Working Environment:

Physical Demands: This job requires the incumbent to have operative auditory and visual functioning. Employee must also be able to walk upwards of two (2) miles each day, including use of stairs and uneven terrain.  Employee may also stand, sit in chairs or on the ground, run, and swim. Employee may lift or body block campers when necessary. Additionally, all trips staff must be able to hike on uneven terrain at high elevations while carrying a 50 – 60 lbs. backpack for extended durations of over five miles per day. 

Work Environment: Working conditions may include being in indoor, often loud, spaces and spending extended time outdoors under the sun. Must have the ability to work in a fast paced, sometimes stressful environment while maintaining the standard of care.