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The Camp Appalachia Cares Collective is a program that brings community resources together to provide a safe place for children who have recently been removed from their homes to land. The children we serve are walking through moments of uncertainty, distrust, and fear.
 

Imagine being twelve years old. What you have always known as “normal” has been a life marked by neglect or abuse. You finally confide in a teacher about what is happening in your home. CPS is called. Within hours, you are removed. In your mind, you just got your parent or guardian in trouble.
 

You do not know if you will stay with your siblings. You do not know where you are going. You do not know what tomorrow looks like.
 

Now you are surrounded by and dependent on strangers to meet your most basic needs. Imagine the thoughts racing through your head: Why did I say anything? Is this all my fault? Was it really that bad? Where am I going to sleep? Where will I eat? What is happening to me?
 

In West Virginia, because of housing shortages, many of these children have ended up in hotels. A small room. Two beds. People they do not know. No real space to process what just happened. No sense of home. Other guests in the building who do not understand their situation and see their presence as a nuisance or a noise complaint. That is not an environment where healing, recovery, and resilience begin.

Now imagine that same child—same trauma, same doubts—but landing somewhere different.
 

It is not their home, but it feels closer to one. There are still new faces, but these people seem to truly see them. They speak calmly. They make space. They understand that silence, anger, or tears are all part of processing. There is a place to sleep with dignity and privacy. A living room to sit and decompress. A game room full of activities. A stocked kitchen they can access whenever they are hungry.
 

They are handed a welcome bag filled with personal essentials—and their own blanket. Something that is just theirs.
 

Each evening, families come and cook dinner, sit at the table, and treat them like they belong. There is open space to walk, animals to care for, and room to breathe. The property feels like a private park where, for a moment, they can just be a kid again.

And maybe, quietly, they begin to think: I still do not know what my future looks like. But today, I am safe.
 

That is the heart of the Camp Appalachia Cares Collective.
 

We meet the immediate, practical needs of children in crisis—safe housing, meals, clothing, and stability. We partner with local foster closets to ensure each child has what they need during this transition. Volunteers provide nightly meals, mentorship, and structured programming rooted in resilience and character development.

But we do more than provide shelter. We live out the love of Christ in tangible ways. We do not simply speak about faith; we demonstrate it through hospitality, dignity, and hope extended to the most vulnerable. By bridging government resources, churches, and community partners, we create a network of care that surrounds a child at one of the most destabilizing moments of their life.
 

For some youth, we may be a temporary landing place. For others, we may become a lifelong point of connection—even a place they return to as they age out of care and build their future.
 

At Camp Appalachia, children move from surviving chaos to beginning recovery. In quiet faithfulness and in Jesus’ name, we show them that they are seen, they are valued, and there is a way forward.