The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center offers a variety of summer programs for children, adolescents, and young adults with and without disabilities. Our camps are a wonderful way to encourage self-esteem, self-respect, and compassion while learning valuable life skills, making new friends, and discovering new interests.
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center programs are unique in that they provide: model services for participants, support for families, training opportunities for college students preparing for educational or service careers, and opportunities for participant and family members to take part in innovative research.
If you wish to learn what it’s like to be a counselor at one of our camps, please click here. If you are interested in applying for a counselor position for 2019, please complete this form. Please note: ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp for People with Williams Syndrome and Next Steps at Vanderbilt Summer Institute are both residential programs and require counselors to stay in the dorms with the program participants overnight. These are 24/7 positions. SENSE Theatre Camp is fully staffed..
Summer Programs
- ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp for People with Williams Syndrome
A weeklong residential camp where campers participate in a songwriting workshop, recording session, songwriter's night and a live performance on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.
- Next Steps at Vanderbilt Summer Institute
Next Steps at Vanderbilt Summer Institute is a weeklong residential college transition program for rising high school juniors, seniors, and young adults with developmental disabilities up to the age of 26.
- SENSE Theatre
SENSE Theatre is a 2-week day camp for youth, 7-18 years of age, with and without autism spectrum disorders.
Community Activities
For information on other summer programs for children with disabilities, contact Tennessee Disability Pathfinder .