A Healing Adventure

Photograph by Hal Garb

Parents usually send their children off to camp in the summer. But at the Rowdy Ridge Gang Camp, in a mountainous region north of Los Angeles, mothers go along with their sons and daughters.

The purpose of the camp is to repair broken bonds between women who have a drug problem or have been abused — or both — and their kids.

The camp’s precise location is kept a secret to protect families from any possibility that they will be followed by abusive spouses, boyfriends, or others. It is operated by the Scott Newman Center, a Los Angeles charity that was founded in 1980 by the actor Paul Newman after his 28-year-old son died of a drug overdose.

The center started the camp in 1994 because it wanted to find a way to provide direct services to people in trouble. It works with 14 social-services groups to recruit mothers and children from the inner city, who are taken by bus to the camp for week-long visits.

Mothers attend a daily session that focuses on child rearing, conflict resolution, and other skills designed to improve their relationships with their children. Then, moms and kids tackle such activities as canoeing, hiking, drama, and art projects.

“Being here at camp does a couple of things for the mothers,” says Ruben Barajas, the camp director. “It disarms them, which is a great way to provide counseling. And they also learn simply by being here and watching our staff interact with their kids and with them.”

Here, a mother leads a group of kids on a canoe expedition.