Make Friends, Help Campers, Build a Lifetime of Memories
READY FOR A TRULY MEANINGFUL SUMMER JOB? Join us in providing a fantastic camp experience for young people with autism and ADHD. Talisman Programs has been in operation since 1980; our ownership team has been involved with camps for decades. Many of our staff return year after year because there is no experience quite like Talisman – the relationships formed, the activities tried, and the lasting impact you make on some very special children!
Benefits
- A competitive salary
- Ten weeks’ employment, including paid training
- Full day off a week
- Set in gorgeous Western North Carolina mountains
- Professional development
- Opportunities to earn college credit and internships
- Career networking with other regional programs
Experience
- Supervision of campers 24/7
- Role-modeling and teaching personal skills
- The most rewarding summer you will experience
- Facilitation of group discussions and problem-solving sessions
- Lead and participate in activities and chores
- Professional documentation
- Developed Autism and ADHD practices
- Commitment to providing our campers with an exceptional experience
Training
- Ten weeks’ employment, including paid training
- FREE certifications (CPRPRO, Wilderness First Aid, Life guarding)
- Intensive hands-on training
- Development and Social Skills Training
- Specific Autism and ADHD trainings
- Career networking with other regional programs
We provide five days of unpaid training in which staff earn valuable certifications that they can take with them in future jobs. We provide 10 (paid) days of intensive soft and hard skills training, including camping, bus driving, understanding of our campers’ diagnoses and needs, behavior and crisis management, group facilitation and more.
Apply Now!
We are now hiring enthusiastic, compassionate, committed staff for the upcoming summer. Please fill out an online application, and we will contact you for a phone interview. Or call us if you would like to discuss employment opportunities with us: 828-697-6313.
Why are there two separate programs focused on ADHD and Autism?
Some of our 8-13-year-old campers are diagnosed with ADHD. Others are on the autism spectrum. And some have both!
We have a program designed especially for those campers who have significant ADHD (Foundations) and a program for those with autism (Sight). But what if your child has both?
Approximately 75% of our campers on the autism spectrum also have ADHD. In helping you choose the best fit program in this case, one of our main considerations is your child’s processing speed. Processing Speed (PSI), one element of an IQ assessment, evaluates the speed and efficiency with which a person processes information and stimuli to produce a response to their environment. A lower score indicates the need for more time to process and respond to information.
If a child’s processing speed is significantly impacted by autism, we generally place them among peers with similar processing speeds in the Sight program. This allows them to participate and socialize at a pace that is comparable to others so they do not feel left behind or frustrated.
If processing speed is not as impacted, we will likely place your camper in the Foundations program. These campers tend to have more rapid speech and thought (and impulsivity) and are jumping rapidly from topic to topic and activity to activity.
If the child is close to both descriptions, we will work with you to determine the best fit based on the other campers signed up for their age group. Because we work with a small population of the spectrum (often termed “high functioning” or formerly known as Aspergers), we often see a lot of overlap in abilities and need. It is our goal to place every camper in the program and group that best matches both.
