Urban Summer Lab: urban camp in the heart of the city
Most teenagers associate camps with leaving the city, carrying heavy backpacks, and sleeping in basic conditions. But it doesn’t always have to be that way.
What if we could bring all the benefits of an educational camp directly into our city?
This was the challenge we took on this summer through organising the Urban Summer Lab – an innovative urban camp that offered adolescents the opportunity to explore key concepts about adult life, financial management, and interpersonal relationships, while also developing independent life skills.
Redefining the concept of a camp
We kept the intensity and energy of a camp, but removed the logistical challenges and high costs. The day is filled with activities and challenges, while in the evening everyone returns to the comfort of their own home. In this way, non-formal education became accessible to more young people and showed that you don’t have to leave the city to have a meaningful experience.
At Urban Summer Lab, there are no teachers and students, but facilitators and participants who learn from one another. There are no graded lessons. Instead of “right” and “wrong” answers, different perspectives emerge and are explored together. Learning happens through dialogue, questions, and shared solutions.
It is precisely through this collaboration that adolescents develop perhaps the most important skill of all: the ability to work with different people, to listen, and to build together.
How did we get here?
It all started in June, at Swimathon, where three teams of swimmers and one individual swimmer entered the pool to support our cause.
Alongside them were also “virtual swimmers” – people who, although not physically present, chose to donate and become part of our story. Together, we managed to raise the funds needed to organise Urban Summer Lab.
When the time came to run the camp, over the course of six weeks, more than one hundred adolescents crossed the threshold of Youth Hub to discover, in a relaxed and friendly environment, how to prepare for adult life.
Each day included self-reflection exercises, honest conversations about relationships and conflict, budgeting activities, and team challenges that brought out the creativity and energy of the young people.
The programme was structured around several key areas
Introspection & interpersonal relationships
Adolescents explored who the trusted people in their lives are: they looked at relationships and the structures of trust around them, as well as the criteria that make a relationship feel safe. They also discussed how they manage conflict and how they invest their energy in others. Each young person identified the values that define them and how these show up in their daily life.
When it came to budgeting, many realised for the first time how quickly their pocket money disappears and learned how to plan their expenses more realistically. They worked on building a clearer picture of their income and spending, discussed case studies, and explored how much money they would need each month to maintain their current lifestyle.
Career preparation
Each adolescent created a roadmap of the most important moments in their life, which they then presented to the group. Sharing their life story in detail gave them a clearer picture of their skills and passions. Using this roadmap, the young people built their own CVs and recommendation letters, and gained insights into how both the recruitment process and university admissions work, as well as what to highlight during these processes.
Self-management and teamwork
Activities in Urban Summer Lab never remained at the level of discussion. Adolescents were given a practical challenge, highly relevant for their future: working in teams, with a set budget and only a few hours available, they had to prepare a starter, main course, dessert, and a drink for everyone!
The young people split into four teams and brought out their cooking skills – and they did not disappoint. Everyone enjoyed pizza, tacos, guacamole, salmon rolls, lemonade, and raspberry muffins. And at the end, they went through the most “delicious” process: settling the expenses.
Urban Summer Lab was more than a camp – it was an experience that brought together learning, curiosity, and the joy of being part of a community. For adolescents, it was a real opportunity for growth and for testing their own limits; for the team, it was a confirmation that when you offer young people a safe and vibrant space, they know exactly what to do with it.
If you would also like to take part in non-formal education activities in a dynamic, open, and interactive environment, we invite you to visit us at Youth Hub and follow us on social media.
Article written by a young volunteer of the Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation, co-edited by the RAA team.
