Across the country this summer, countless kids are crowding into summer camps. Most are learning to swim or participating in arts and crafts. But here in Durham, North Carolina, kids this summer are attending camp in hopes of combating racism.

Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock is the founder of weare, a Raleigh-Durham-based nonprofit. They are also the only group in the country to offer a summer camp with a sole mission to teach kids about racism. The idea is to educate children to be anti-racist during their formative years.

“The curiosity, the empathy is different with young children. The want to be a good person is different with younger children, and I think that during the foundational years, if we can be more intentional, we can make a difference,” Dr. Bullock said.

This is not your ordinary summer camp. Kids from 1^st to 5^th grade are often asked to open up about their own experiences with racism.

“You want them to have fun, but you’re wrestling with a very serious topic. And we’re very clear with parents upfront that your kids might come to this space and cry,” Dr. Bullock explained about the camp.

One of those campers is 11-year-old Tatiana Shields, who’s been coming to the program for the last four years.

“Even though we talk about harsh topics, everyone is there for each other, so I don’t feel scared when I’m trying to share something,” Shields said about her experience in the camp.

Perhaps her most memorable experience this year was painting a self-portrait and using multiple colors in a palate to create the color of her own skin. She considers herself multi-racial.

“It was interesting finding out how to do it. I would never think I’d use yellow or red to make a skin color,” the 11-year-old girl said.

Shields’ mom, Tanya, wants this soon-to-be 6^th-grader to go into middle school with a strong sense of racial identity and the ability to call out others when racism might arise.

“Part of our fear around confronting racism is we don’t have the language. We don’t know how to speak about it,” she said.

The whole idea of the weare anti-racist camp is to teach kids empathy and open their eyes at a young age to the world around them in hopes that they will go into the world with more accepting points of view.

For Dr. Bullock, the work won’t end when summer does. She’s helping to create curriculums that preschools in the Raleigh area can use to talk about racism.

“The window of hope is so much wider with kids than it is with adults,” she said.

There's no air conditioning inside of the classroom where Kate Martin and Tafadzwa Musekiwa are teaching. The building wasn't meant to be in use during the middle of July. But these two guidance counselors are committed to helping kids who have struggled re-adjusting, as the country emerges from COVID-19.

Martin and Musekiwa are both counselors at Londonderry High School in New Hampshire. Even though classes here were let out weeks ago, these two guidance counselors are teaching about 18 students every morning. It's not summer school but more like summer camp.

This school district and others across the country are running summer programs to help kids who've struggled to emerge from the pandemic.

"I think a lot of our kids feel a loss of control and they don’t know what’s happening, what’s going on around them," Martin said sitting inside one of the school's classrooms.

Making friends is one of the biggest things they're working on here. Parents and teachers nationwide are realizing that kids are dealing with a lot of anxiety, especially when it comes to relationships because of how much social time was lost during the pandemic.

"A lot of our kids were saying, ‘I don’t know how to make friends anymore,’" Martin added.

Sometimes, finding solutions is as simple as having students write down ideas to help with self-care.

"We’re talking about friendships, boundaries. Sometimes we are talking about meditation, self-care, even yoga. Looking for skills they might not have had for the last 14 months," Musekiwa added.

Schools districts across the country are running similar programs and for good reason. According to the Keiser Family Foundation, parents with children ages 5 to 12 reported seeing that their kids had elevated symptoms of depression related to the pandemic.

Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore is a clinical psychologist. Even though many kids ended up back in classrooms by the end of the school year, she's seen lingering mental health issues.

"The strain, the strangeness, the uncertainty, and isolation have taken a toll on kids and families," Dr. Kennedy-Moore added.

Much like what the summer program at Londonderry High School is trying to accomplish, there is one thing she says parents should focus on this summer.

"If you want to know the number one thing about helping your kid go back to school, help them make friends."

Kids are ready to go back to camp this summer. Many camps are even reporting higher enrollment rates than in 2019, according to a survey from the American Camp Association (ACA). But staffing issues are creating a roadblock to accommodating that.

“You know, one of the challenges this summer is just the there's a seasonal employment shortage for a lot of seasonal businesses, restaurants, but also the summer camps,” said Tom Rosenberg, President and CEO of the ACA.

A big part of the issue is the lack of applications from American college students. Many had their academic year disrupted and maybe using the summer to play catch up.

But college students from other countries not being able to get to the U.S. is also contributing to the shortage.

“This year was more complicated because of the whole, all the restrictions,” said Marius Verzea, with Politehnica University of Bucharest’s Work and Travel Program.

Work and travel programs account for about 25,000 camp counselors and 5,000 to 6,000 other camp employees. But these students provide more than just their services.

“They’re coming over to bring their cultural identity and lend it to the camp program, and kids learn about other countries through these first-person cultural exchange programs. Really powerful,” said Rosenberg.

J1 visas are now being accepted again, but the U.S. still has a travel ban on 33 countries. And for those that don’t have a ban, there’s been a big delay in getting a required in-person interview at the U.S. embassy. Not as many people have been allowed in at once due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“The U.S. embassy, like they were very strict about this, like keep the distance, we are going to take you guys like one by one and stuff like that, like there they've been strict about that,” said Verzea.

Because of delays and travel bans, some camps are reporting they may have to roll back on operations or cancel them altogether.

The ACA is encouraging anyone looking for a job this summer to consider camp so this doesn't happen.

“They can earn a good salary and also have a really meaningful experience making a difference in the lives of young people. They'll learn hands-on management strategies. They’ll learn conflict resolution. They'll learn communication skills, but also, be outside in nature in a very social and emotionally fun environment,” said