"At a YES! camp, you truly step out of your normal environment," explained Ryan Eliason, 26, co-founder of Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!) and co-facilitator of many of the organization's camps and workshops.  "Being at a YES! camp allows you to accept something new  that there's another way to relate to each other, to the Earth and to all living things  and to believe in what's possible."

YES! camps are hosted at special natural areas across the U.S., with an agenda that is creative, well-planned and engaging.  Activities range from serious workshops led by experienced adult activists to frank discussion circles between the youth campers on topics like racism, sexism, and what it means to be a leader.  And, of course, there is some free time to enjoy the outdoors.

YES! was founded in 1990 by then-teens Eliason and Ocean Robbins in Santa Cruz, California.  The organization's performance troupe, the YES! Tour, has reached over 500,000 students across America through high school assemblies that mix music, skits and serious raves about what young people can do for social and environmental justice. 

"What we've done with YES!," says Ryan "is brought a group of people together who've gotten really clear on what they think the world needs and put it into an art that would actually move people.  It's just the truth.  And it's coming from our hearts."

YES! presentations, workshops and camps all have something in common: empowerment.  Past YES! camp participants have heralded their experiences as life-changing and have become accomplished social and environmental leaders in their communities. 

"I definitely consider the seven days of YES! camp to be the best experience of my life," said archana, a 23 year-old activist from Nairobi, Kenya who attended YES!'s World Youth Leadership Camp last year in the Santa Cruz mountains.  "I was amazed by the level of openness, honesty and unity we shared.  The camp gave me so many ideas, and the skills to go about implementing them.  I'm more confident about what I can achieve now."

YES! camps seem to promote a sense of community that is altogether rare.  Along with sharing similar ages and an interest in protecting the earth, participants can safely examine topics that are usually passed over and ignored.  Circle discussions like "Building Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem" and "Healing Divisions of Race and Gender" tend to create a bond of understanding and unity that stays with camp participants for a long time.

After a 1993 YES! Tour performance at a high school in Phoenix, Arizona, a teen-age gang member named Robby, in trouble with the law, ended up attending a YES! camp after being inspired by the presentation. 

"For the first time, I caught drift of a new possibility," Robby recounts,  "a vision of people caring about each other and working together to make the world better.  I was angry at the world, but in that environment of acceptance, with everyone so friendly and aware, my heart just melted.  I felt a sense of peace I'd never felt before...  I swear, if it weren't for camp, I wouldn't have made it."

This former drug-dealer who had attempted suicide twice was supported by those at the camp to recognize his gifts.  "It's strange that coming from my background, with all the pain I've been through, I could have something to contribute," he said.  "But I'm realizing how powerful a voice is.  People want to listen, and they need leaders.   I've decided that we all need to treat the world better than it's treated us.  That's the only way we're ever going to turn things around."

If you or someone you know is interested in attending a YES! camp, visit the YES! website at http://www.yesworld.org or call (408) 454-9970.