THE ESF DIFFERENCEOUR STORYOUR HISTORYOUR PEOPLEMISSIONTRADITIONSCOMMUNITY OUTREACH

Community Outreach

  • 260,000 Hours of free mentoring services each year at ESF Dream Camp

    3,000 Audience Members have enjoyed AWB performaces since 2004

  • 5,000 Scholarships awarded to low-income children to attend ESF Dream Camp since 1998

    5 Major AWB productions since 2004

  • 100% of ESF Dream Camp's graduating seniors are attending college

     

    32 Young Actors with disabilities have participated in AWB since 2004, free of charge

  • Over 500 children attend ESF Dream Camp's year-long program each year

    100% of actors say that their experience with AWB has far surpassed their expectations

  • Every Dollar raised by ESF Dream Camp goes directly to programming expenses

    4 to 26 Years-old is the age range of AWB actors


   


The ESF Team is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of all children, teenagers and young adults within our community. That's why ESF has always emphasized inclusion in our camps. ESF is the proud sponsor of the ESF Dream Camp Foundation and Acting Without Boundaries - two nonprofit organizations dedicated to making a difference in the lives of underserved young people. These two programs lie at the heart of ESF's remarkable commitment to children and families.

ESF has teamed up with some incredibly kindhearted individuals, businesses and foundations who share ESF's commitment to excellence, innovation, and social responsibility. Together, we're working towards a common goal: helping children from a diversity of circumstances achieve their dreams and realize the depths of their promise and potential.

   

ESF's signature community effort, the ESF Dream Camp Foundation, extends the company's commitment to educational and recreational programs for youth to children living in two of the nation's most violent and impoverished cities, Hartford, CT and Philadelphia, PA. Over a decade ago, ESF began looking for a way to provide their unique summer programming on a year-round basis to children in desperate need of safe, structured out-of-school-time activities. In 1998, ESF teamed up with a generous Trinity College alumnus to launch the first Dream Camp site in Hartford, CT on the campus of Trinity College. Five years later, ESF opened their second Dream Camp site at Girard College in North Philadelphia.

Since then, Dream Camp has provided over 5,000 scholarships (and counting) to children in both cities to attend a yearlong after-school mentoring and summer camp programs, free-of-charge. Through an innovative curriculum and a dedicated staff, Dream Camp has successfully improved math and reading levels, lowered the frequency of behavioral infractions, helped to develop basic life skills, cultivated leadership skills, fostered effective conflict-resolution skills and improved the overall self-confidence of each of its young participants.

Then, inspired by their sister's experiences with Cerebral Palsy, the Rouse Brothers and the ESF team helped her to launch Acting Without Boundaries (AWB) in 2004. AWB is a unique year-round theatre program that provides an open forum for the creative and artistic expression of children, teenagers and young adults with physical disabilities. AWB strives to provide young people from the disabled community with the opportunity to pursue their love of acting while building greater confidence in themselves and their abilities.

ESF recognizes that in every community there is work to be done and ESF is deeply committed to making a real difference in our local community by bettering the lives of underserved children. Each year, Team ESF donates thousands of hours to the ESF Dream Camp Foundation and Acting Without Boundaries in support of ESF's deep-rooted commitment to making a difference in the lives of children. Want to get involved? It's easy...contact the Dream Camp Foundation at 1-800-529-CAMP,  and help support the dreams of hundreds of children in your very own backyard today.