SLO County Sheriff's Youth Summer Camp helps kids learn important life lessons and safety education

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. – The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office is wrapping up the first of three weeklong summer camps for children the department hosts each summer.

Taking place this week at Mesa Middle School in rural Arroyo Grande, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Free Youth Summer Camp is being held for incoming children in grades 5-7.

“It's a time of transition, and we want to come in and be a positive influence and help our kids become good communicators, be good friends, make smart choices,” said Grace Norris, with the sheriff's office of San Luis Obispo County for Crime Prevention. Specialist. We're the sheriff's office and we offer this camp for free and a lot of fun activities, but we also try to instill some really good values ​​in this group of kids. »

Over the course of the week, nearly 100 children participated in a variety of fun activities and games and also learned valuable life lessons.

According to the sheriff's office, the camp is built around a school-based curriculum taught by law enforcement officers, and is designed to prevent delinquency, youth violence and gang involvement among children. .

Topics covered during the week include bullying prevention, respecting others, making good life choices, conflict resolution, recognizing and managing anger.

The free camp is an outreach program celebrating its 11th anniversary and aimed at children who live under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Office in South County.

The Sheriff's Office will host two additional camps this month, including its North County Camp next week at Lillian Larsen Elementary School in San Miguel, as well as its Coastal Camp at Cayucos Elementary School in Cayucos the following week .

Registration remains open for the two upcoming camps, which have a capacity of 120 children.

“The sheriff’s office is a part of this community,” Norris said. “We care about this community, and this is just another way for us to meet a critical need. In our county, summer camps are hard to find and they are very expensive, so we took bear the costs and it's something we invested in because we care about the children of this community.

For more information about the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Youth Summer Camp, click here.