For the fourth summer in a row, the Oconee Center is offering at-risk youth an opportunity to embrace those long summer days through three months of activities designed to entertain as well as to engage.

Next week, the Oconee Community Service Board will begin the fourth year of Project Challenge, a summer camp that helps low-income and at-risk children with diagnoses of severe emotional disorders engage in activities that teach basic life skills and reinforce lessons they learn during the school year while providing an opportunity to experience all shades of summer fun.

“It provides the opportunity to be exposed to things during the summer,” Project Challenge Coordinator Ezekiel McWilliams said. “We get the community involved by presenting different speakers like police officers, firemen and first responders, but we also expose the children to things like arts and crafts, dance, scrapbooking and poetry.”

McWilliams said Project Challenge strives to not only teach children basic life skills, but also to expose children to activities that could possibly translate to employment opportunities later in life.

Not simply a learning experience, Project Challenge also offers the entertaining adventures all summer camps are remembered for; campers take part in weekly field trips to amusement parks, sporting events and state parks across the state.

McWilliams said this year he hopes to take the kids out to enjoy some horseback riding so they can learn about horses.

But more importantly, Project Challenge gives kids a safe environment to learn about themselves and how they interact with others while practicing life skills that will transport them from their youth to adulthood.

“A lot of kids come to camp with low self-esteem, but throughout the summer they become more confident in themselves and you can see their self esteem rising as they begin to feel better about themselves and their interactions with the other kids,” McWilliams said. “The kids start off shy, but as they go along you start to see a lot of growth.”

McWilliams said those success stories have helped the Oconee Center grow Project Challenge over the course of its four-year existence to reach more at-risk youth with a greater range of emotional disorders.

“Each year we’ve grown the program by 10 to 15 kids,” McWilliams said. “But the biggest change is that initially we opened the camp to at-risk youth; now we’re open to at-risk youth with mental health diagnoses.”

Project Challenge serves about 100 children ages 6 to 17 from Baldwin, Hancock, Jasper, Putnam, Washington and Wilkinson counties. The program also offers the children the opportunity to give back to Project Challenge by employing them in the camp as they grow older.

Project Challenge also offers parents the opportunity to get involved in field trips and other activities.

“We encourage and invite parents to participate and interact with the kids and staff,” McWilliams said.

McWilliams also encourages people to contribute to Project Challenge by donating money or volunteering with the summer camp. McWilliams said Project Challenge has a particular need for assistance in transporting camp participants between their homes and the camp activities.

Project Challenge will challenge young people to be their best between June 1 and Aug. 31.