In the infamously expensive and academically competitive Silicon Valley, nearly every reputable summer camp is marked by a hefty price tag — leaving many low-income families with few affordable options. But since 2021, kids living in the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park, located on El Camino Real in Palo Alto, have had a summer camp specialized to serve their needs right in the mobile home park. The organization that made it possible? Juntos Summer Camp.
The organization, which is fully student-led, aims to provide low-income Hispanic families in Palo Alto with an inexpensive yet high-quality summer camp option. With themed days such as “archaeology” and “park rangers” and activities ranging from lemon volcanoes to fossil kits, Juntos works to ensure that campers are given the opportunity to discover their unique capabilities in accessible ways — a resource that is often scarce in their communities. Through engaging in the camp activities and venturing outside of their comfort zones, campers in the same neighborhoods build long-lasting relationships, Juntos co-director and recent Los Altos High School graduate Audrey Fan said.
Juntos, meaning “together” in Spanish, was founded in 2021 by Yoonha Park, then a rising senior at The King’s Academy. Setting out to address the mental health crisis in low-income communities, Juntos started as an extension of the Buena Vista Homework Club, a tutoring initiative run by local college and high school students.
While working as a tutor at the BVHC in 2021, Fan observed firsthand that Hispanic and low-income students especially struggled to bounce back from the COVID-19 lockdown, both academically and emotionally. After noticing this discrepancy Fan worked to expand the summer camp — which was then in the early stages of planning — from a three-day to five-day program.
“I saw that the tutoring program helped in leveling the playing field,” Fan said. “So, as summer was nearing, I was wondering, ‘How do we keep these inequitable initiatives going, not just doing the school year, but also during the summer?’”
The first time Juntos ran in 2021, the camp consisted of 15 kids. This summer, it had as many as 28 each day in the community trailer Juntos uses — with kids ranging from first graders to juniors in high school — and ran during the week of July 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For the Juntos leaders and volunteers, accessibility is a major focus, Juntos co-director and recent Los Altos High graduate Angely Vargas said. The camp takes place in the mobile home park, giving those without a means of transportation easy access to the program. While most attendees are residents of the mobile home park, the organization welcomes kids from all over the Bay Area.
Aside from building a welcoming space for campers to have fun, the organizers of Juntos hope for their high school volunteers — who are each assigned to a group of campers — to act as role models and implant confidence in campers by actively supporting them throughout the week-long camp, Fan said.
While most of the organization’s volunteers are also tutors at the BVHC, Juntos gains a large part of its publicity through Los Alto High’s College and Career Center and recruits volunteers through the Buena Vista Youth Scholars Club, a club at Los Altos High.
“We look for people who would … be able to work well with kids that know how to react in scenarios with them.” Vargas said. “Other than that, we’re just looking for people who have energy mostly because kids feed off of energy.”
As for recruiting participants, Juntos representatives walk door-to-door in the mobile home park to advertise their program.
“It’s been a lot easier to get the word out, especially when we’re walking around door-to-door asking people to sign up. Most of them [say] ‘I’ve already seen this, my kid is signed up already,’” Fan said. “‘They’ve been talking about this for the past three months, and they’re super excited.’”
In line with the camp’s name, Juntos truly emphasizes bringing the community together, and many campers return to participate in the program every summer. But that doesn’t mean newer campers are excluded from the group. In fact, this summer, two siblings who recently immigrated from Guatemala signed up for the camp and were initially quite shy, Fan said. However, the other campers quickly made sure to include them in activities and conversations.
“What sets [Juntos] apart is that it’s so tight knit and everybody trusts each other,” Fan said. “We’re willing to experiment with new things and keep building these consistent, year-after-year relationships with each other.”
To sustain funding for this free program, Juntos partners with the Buena Vista Partners, the same nonprofit that sponsors the BVHC. With this subsidizing, Juntos is able to provide camp t-shirts and free lunches. The Buena Vista Partners also help set up and advertise an Amazon Wishlist for camp supplies.
In previous years, Juntos has also worked with organizations such as Resource Area For Teaching to obtain around 50 STEAM kits for the campers, which contained materials for projects. Juntos has also partnered with Friends of the Palo Alto City Library to distribute free books to the campers’ families.
The Buena Vista Mobile Home Park is currently undergoing construction, which may prevent Juntos from using the trailer facility next summer. To prepare, Fan said the Juntos leaders are currently discussing the possibility of hosting the camp at the Palo Alto Vineyard Church or holding less frequent sessions at Barron Park Elementary.
Regardless of where the camp is held next summer, the directors of Juntos still intend to target their work toward the community they’ve built in recent years. To continue improving upon the camp experience, Juntos organizers said they plan to work on raising awareness about the discrepancies between students of different socioeconomic statuses and the need for accessible resources in the park — all while increasing camper attendance and family engagement.
“It’s entirely a community effort,” Fan said. “Buena Vista has been one of the most welcoming and compassionate [communities]. Seeing how the families are trusting us with their kids, and that the kids also trust us and are willing to share parts of their lives with us. That’s been really special.”
