Camp Collaboration 2025 Reflections
By: Hadassah Moore | Project Coordinator, First Things First Porter County
Camp Collaboration 2025 came to a close with a record-setting attendance! Over 100 friends came together on Tuesday, August 19 to celebrate, connect, and collaborate over all things prenatal – age three. In addition to the usual networking over coffee, chatting over crafts, and exploring new opportunities, we had a few new additions this year.
In our opening ceremonies, Mark Latta of City Rising introduced The Nurturing Project, a storytelling for impact initiative that equips Challenge Grantees to strategically and authentically share their collaborative work with the community and other stakeholders. Campers were encouraged to visit booths of 2024 cohort members and explore their “oughtness maps,” visual representations of what “ought” to be happening in Porter County’s prenatal – age three ecosystem.
Then, Kasie Tenbarge, FTF Associate Director, announced the launch of our Seeds of Promise enrollment campaign – helping 365 babies claim their $100 educational savings account before the end of the year. Throughout the camp day, we collected ideas on how to best spread the word and shared flower seed packets to begin conversations with friends, clients, and family members.
Next, we introduced a new camp activity: Scavenger Hunt! Campers and visitors were tasked to explore various stops around the campgrounds to learn more about each other, FTF initiatives, and camp activities. In addition to the fun and knowledge, one of our campers won the Scavenger Hunt raffle prize – a gift card from Lakeshore Learning!
To close our opening session, Laura Green introduced The Lullaby Project, a project of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, that matches new and soon-to-be parents/caregivers with professional musicians to write and sing original lullabies for their babies, supporting parental health and strengthening early relational health. The first cohort of the Porter County Lullaby Project is led by Jordy Novak, music therapist of The Great Lakes Music Company. Using input from our Early Learning Collaborative, Jordy wrote a theme song for Camp Collaboration 2025 and led our campfire gathering in singing the inspiring words together.
After the heartwarming song, the familiar hustle and bustle began! Chatter through the conference center, coffee drinks in hand, and discussions over making friendship bracelets proved another successful year together.
In close, another round of Collaboration Challenge Grants were awarded to seven community projects aimed at bolstering the prenatal – age three systems of care in Porter County. In total, $271,678 was shared with organizations in our Collective for the 2025 grant cycle. Read more about the projects here!