As a follow-up to ACA's Youth Development Outcomes project (2001-2004),
the Camp Program Improvement Project is a new ACA capacity-building effort
currently progressing in collaboration with Youth Development Strategies,
Inc. (YDSI).
This project is focused on determining specific camp program strategies
that improve the quality of the experience campers receive. The project
measures responses of youth to the presence and implementation of "supports
and opportunities" deemed necessary to strong youth programming and
positive outcomes. We will discover program strategies that strengthen
outcomes for youth in camp and other youth programs. Camp program evaluation
is being conducted in four areas of supports and opportunities for youth:
- Supportive Relationships with adults and peers
- Safety (physical and emotional)
- Youth Involvement and Participation
- Skill Building through Challenging/Engaging Activities
Twenty camps are working with Michelle Alberti Gambone, Ph.D., president
of YDSI, in this new research endeavor. In the following interview, Michelle
shares some of the basics of this new project and what the results will
mean to the camp community.
Please explain to us briefly the nature of this
research project?
There are two parts to this project. First, the project started with establishing
benchmarks for camp performance. We looked at camps from a system-wide
point of view. Initially, we collected survey data from eighty camps and
7,600 campers. The camps were reflective of ACA membership, varying by
sponsorship, length of session, mixed gender or single gender, etc. Forty
camps were taken from the ACA outcomes study, and the other half came
from a group of camps that expressed interest in being part of the work.
We chose the camps that best matched the characteristics of ACA as an
association.
The second phase of the study we call the Program Improvement Pilot
(PIP). In this pilot, twenty camps were selected from the original eighty
camps. These camps were representative of the whole group. Within this
phase of the project, we are interested in examining the supports and
opportunities of the camp experience and in understanding the effect of
various program strategies on youth perceptions of their camp experience.
We view this pilot study as the starting point of a process to reflect
even further on the strengths of the camp experience for young people.
In your opinion, how would you explain the difference
between our outcomes research efforts and the YDSI research?
There are two specific differences. One difference is that the Program
Improvement Pilot (PIP) is focused on improvement. What can camps do to
improve the existing experience they offer to campers?
The second distinction is that we were not only intrigued by finding
out the benefits of the camp experience, we were interested to know why
camps were or were not improving their outcomes. The initial outcomes
study, as is true of all such efforts, left us with more questions we
now want to answer: What happens from a developmental aspect in camp that
helps campers improve and what are the supports and opportunities the
camp experience offers campers?
Another variation between the outcomes study and the current pilot is
that the outcomes study measured how campers benefited from the camp experience,
but the pilot study focuses on the attributes of the camp experience that
cause success or even failure among the camper population in terms of
supportive relationships, safety, youth participation, and skill building.
How long will the Program Improvement Pilot (PIP)
project last before we are able to benefit from your findings?
We are currently working on an analysis of the eighty camps who participated
in providing the original benchmarking data. We presented a preliminary
analysis of this data at the ACA national conference in Orlando. Look
for an upcoming article on these benchmarks in the September-October issue
of Camping Magazine!
In addition, the twenty camps participating in the PIP project gathered
together last fall and winter to analyze and reflect on their individual
camps' data. We asked the camps questions: Why are campers experiencing
camp the way they are? How are they involved in decision making? And,
many other poignant questions. During this meeting, the camps created
an action plan. They now have a set of strategies to implement at camp.
Once they have implemented these camp-specific strategies, we will resurvey
the twenty camps this summer. We will look at data in the fall of ‘05
identifying strategies and practices that really boost the benefits kids
get at camp, and then we will share this information with the larger camp
community and with other youth development organizations and leaders.
How were ACA camps chosen to participate?
Camps learned about the program improvement project primarily through
regional and national presentations. Awareness was increased in the summer
of ‘03 when we initiated a mini-pilot of four camps. It was important
to obtain a representative sample. We collected names of volunteers and
selected the participating camps based on region, day and resident camp,
length of sessions offered, etc., all in the effort to maintain a representative
sample of camps.
Why does this PIP project matter — to our
members and to camps?
A significant reason is that camp is such a powerful memory and experience
for those who attend; it has the potential to enrich lives to a great
extent. The more we can improve upon this experience the better job we
are doing.
ACA and the camp community are groundbreakers and a model for the rest
of the youth development community, offering plausible evidence as to
how a system that cares for young people can do the best job. There is
a lot to learn from the camp community, and we can offer these important
lessons to other organizations beyond camp, including out-of-school organizations,
neighborhoods, local youth clubs, schools, and any group that has the
best interests of youth in mind.
It matters because it matters to the kids. Everything we do for them
must be done in the best possible way. We have that responsibility. This
project will help us and other organizations to do the best possible job.
How will this type of project and future projects
influence what we do at our camps?
The influence of this project can best be explained with an example: We
know that the structure of camp offers kids an opportunity to practice
decision making — this is an essential skill. In this current project,
many camps are looking for successful strategies to build youth decision
making into camp. The survey results will help us learn, for example,
how to merge developmental needs into the camp experience. This will be
true for decision making, relationship building, skill building, etc.
This study will help camps learn how to improve these developmental aspects
in an even better way. It is true that we know a lot about these aspects
in other settings, but camp is the unique setting. And, we have much to
learn.
How can we apply what you and ACA are doing to
the messages we are sharing with parents?
Even now, some of the participating camps are trying various strategies
to share with parents. One camp director told me what an enormous help
the outcomes research has been for his camp's fund-raising efforts.
He said, ‘We now have a quality-tested way to share the benefits
of camp.'
The most important benefactor of this research is children. If we learn
the kind of strategies necessary to build even richer developmental experiences
for campers, they will be the first to benefit.
In the next month or so, we will be gathering a study group to strategize
the best ways and best advantages to sharing the research results inside
and outside the camp community.
Originally published in the 2005 May/June issue
of Camping Magazine. |
