Housed as part of New York’s SUNY Brockport, Camp Abilities is the brainchild of Dr. Lauren Lieberman, a passionate educator, advocate and champion for youth with visual impairment, blindness and deaf-blindness.

For 25 years and counting, Camp Abilities’ one-week educational sports camp has enabled athletes from all over the country – more than half of whom are young women – to experience a range of boundary-free sports, while also training educators in adaptive sport techniques. Many of the educators themselves are visually impaired and serve as mentors and inspiration to the student athletes. To date, Camp Abilities has served over 14,000 athletes and trained over 2,000 educators.

Sarah Emery, Avangrid Renewables’ Eastern Regional Permitting Manager, met Dr. Lieberman over 20 years ago and has stayed connected to the camp while living out of state. Sarah’s own experience with hearing loss gives her a heartfelt appreciation for the Camp’s focus on empowerment and inclusion, helping youth break out of the isolation they may be feeling. Through an ecosystem of social support, Camp Abilities ensures no student has to sit on the sidelines, either in sports or in life.

Camp Abilities inspires its athletes to embrace their fullest potential – proving that a loss of sight does not mean a loss of vision. One of the Camp’s former athletes swam in the Rio 2016 Paralympics, placing eighth worldwide, and was recently named to the 2020/2021 U.S. team for Tokyo!

Thanks to Dr. Lieberman and supporters like Sarah, Camp Abilities is now a global movement with five camps in New York State, over 22 camps across the U.S., and over eight camps worldwide on four continents. Support from the Avangrid Foundation helped Camp Abilities transition their camp virtually in COVID and to continue planning for full operations in coming years. These resources for a “camp in a box” are available here: www.campabilitiesworld.com