Harmony at Home – Teen Enrichment Summer Camp at Glen Deven Ranch
It was an understanding of how much our environments impact our lives that led Julianne Leavy to create Harmony at Home, an organization based in Carmel that supports girls and young women who have been exposed to domestic and community violence. Among Leavy’s first cases as a Marriage and Family Therapist were children growing up in violent homes, and she decided early on in her career that this would be her focus: developing tools and resources for these children so that they could grow into healthier lives and not repeat what they see at home. In 1997, Leavy created Sticks and Stones, a school-based counseling program devoted to helping children express their feelings and stay safe in violent homes. In 2005, Harmony at Home was formed as an independent non-profit to continue to help children break the cycle of dysfunctional family patterns.
A key part of Harmony at Home’s success is the Teen Enrichment Summer Camp at Glen Deven Ranch, a collaboration with The Big Sur Land Trust. Glen Deven Ranch, an 860-acre property bequeathed to the Land Trust by Dr. Seeley and Mrs. Virginia Mudd in 2001, is located in Palo Colorado Canyon and features breathtaking views of mountain ridges and the Pacific Coast. Since 2003, Leavy, the daughter of BSLT co-founder Zad Leavy, has brought a group of girls and young women aged 13-22 to the Ranch every summer for a week of activities, connection, growth, and learning.
Edna, now 19, has attended the camp for the past three years. Chris Devers, one of her teachers at the Salinas Community School, encouraged her to apply.
“I had a lot of problems at home,” Edna says. “There were trust issues, and I was really closed—open to no one. I was a rebel.” At the camp, Edna discovered a safe environment to open up. “There’s a kind of respect there you don’t get in everyday life,” she says.
The camp offers the girls, many of whom have never been to Big Sur or any other natural environment, a space to feel free, and safe. “The girls change when they’re up there,” Leavy says. “They make shifts.” Activities include journaling, group and individual therapy, private quiet time, walks and hikes, swimming, working with Ranch caretaker Jim Cox and the horses, environmental education, art projects, healthy meal preparation, and a deepened awareness of how it feels to be outside.
“In nature, you go deep into what’s going on,” Edna says. “It’s hard to stop and think in the city. In nature it’s more relaxing, you have your own space and time. It’s more about your inner person.”
“Glen Deven is such a magical place,” says Rachel Saunders, BSLT Director of Communications and Community Affairs. “It can really serve as a healing space for young people to connect with themselves, each other, and the land.”
Next year Edna will become a teen mentor leader, part of the program’s forward-looking approach that aims to foster connection throughout the year with the camp participants. “There’s nothing as powerful as working with a peer,” Leavy says. “We want to sustain the involvement in their lives. It’s not just one week and then ‘have a good life.’”
Edna says that attending the camp has changed her relationships at home for the better. One of her favorite aspects of the camp is sharing dinner with the other girls and leaders. “It’s just good to sit down with people who love you,” she says. After coming home from the camp one summer, she asked her mother if their family could sit down for dinner together. “It makes a difference,” she says about the new family ritual. Edna also enjoys a more mutually supportive relationship with her sister since attending the camp. “I can be a good example,” she says. “There’s a bond of honesty now. We have positive conversations and feel closer.”
“We set a tone of respect,” Leavy says. “There’s no bull—we’re all in this together. It’s all about making good choices. Being in open space, you can see so much more. The environment is our model for openness.”
You can help support youth programs at Glen Deven Ranch and other Big Sur Land Trust properties.
