Properly Serving a Changing Population
A recent Today show piece touted that Caucasian children won’t comprise the majority of children born in the U.S. within 5 or 6 years. This story isn’t news to us at our multicultural summer camp, which has been emphasizing serving who our population actually is for many years. It’s interesting now that is increasingly in the public eye.
It hasn’t been news for a while. From the 2010 US census, non-Hispanic white children ages 5 to 17 (or roughly “camp age”) comprise only about 55.5% of that segment. “Minority” children (that is, any group other than non-Hispanic white) accounted for 46 percent of the population under 18 in 2010, compared with 39 percent in 2000 and 31 percent in 1990. All of the growth in the child population since 2000 has been among groups other than Non-Hispanic whites. Indeed by 2015, non-Hispanic white alone will equal less than 50% of camp aged kids; those of Hispanic origin will equal over 25%; those of black/African-American origin alone will equal almost 15%; those of Asian descent will equal almost 5%; and biracial children will equal almost 4%.
In general, the camper population served by member camps of the American Camp Association (ACA)—the largest body accrediting summer camps in the U.S.— diverges from the actual current population of the U.S. In 2010, ACA Resident Camps in 2010 served a population that was: 75% white, 11% black, 7%Hispanic/Latino, 3% Asian, 3% multiracial, 1% Native/Islander. Therefore, in the United States, by 2015, according to U.S. Census projections, if those camps continue that trend, they will be overserving white campers by 50% (75% being served vs. comprising 50% of the population) , underserving Hispanic/Latino by over 70% (7 vs 25), blacks by almost 25% (11 vs 15), Asians by about 40% (3 vs 5), multiracial by 25% (3 vs 4).
At Kupugani, we’re happy to be at the forefront of actually currently serving the changing population, and doing it well! From last year, our population served was 45% Caucasian, 24% African-American; 15% Multiracial (including girls of Native American and Middle Eastern descent), 10% of Hispanic/Latina descent, 6% Asian or South Asian.