During my years as a camp director, safety became more than a set of rules or a checklist; it evolved into a daily practice with my entire team, embedded in everything from early morning activity setup to final cabin checks at night. Now, as a risk consultant, I can see camp safety demands through a broader lens, and I’m charged with helping camps to navigate a more complex world where risks are high and the stakes are even higher. One thing remains clear: creating a proactive, lasting safety culture is the most effective way to protect and carry out the impact of the camp experience.

A proactive safety culture has been shown to reduce incidents and build resilience among organizations working with youth. For instance, research in organizational psychology (Zohar & Luria, 2003) and youth development (Duerden et al., 2015) suggests that when safety is an ingrained cultural element — woven into daily interactions and decisions — staff are more likely to engage in safe practices and identify risks early. Programs with a proactive safety culture report fewer incidents and greater preparedness, even in high-risk settings (Zohar & Luria, 2003). We can all strive for this kind of impact in our camps.

Building a safety culture isn’t just about what you say; it is about what you consistently do. It’s about fostering an environment where camp team members, campers, and visitors feel confident and empowered to act when something seems wrong. The team’s energy and optimism, which they bring to camp each year, are a powerful resource, but for them to become champions of safety, you need to provide them with creative, memorable, and sustainable approaches that stick.

Here are some safety tips that will get you thinking about ways to build up your camp safety culture.

What Camp Teams Can Gain

A focus on safety is a group effort that requires each team member to understand their personal responsibility to the whole camp.

  • Becoming a leader others can trust. As part of the camp team, you’re more than just a role model — you’re someone campers look up to and depend on. Embracing safety means showing campers (and your peers) that you’re responsible, reliable, and trustworthy. These qualities don’t just make you a better team member, but also provide you with skills that will carry forward into any career or leadership position you eventually pursue. Showing commitment to safety can earn you respect and build your confidence as someone others can rely on in any situation.
  • Creating a safe space where camp thrives. Safety isn’t just about rules; it’s about keeping camp a place where everyone can have fun, be themselves, and grow. When you help make camp safe, you’re actively creating the best possible experience for every camper, which they’ll remember. The laughter, friendships, and achievements that happen at camp are only possible because it’s a place where people feel secure and cared for. Being part of that makes you a protector of camp memories, ensuring everyone can leave camp with positive, lasting impressions.
  • Accountability to meet the duty of care. Every camp team member — no matter their role — must commit to making safety a priority and recognize that their actions and decisions contribute to the overall safety culture. This legal and ethical concept requires camps to take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety and well-being of those in their care. This should be woven into daily routines and reinforced by the camp’s leadership. Leaders need to reinforce that being proactive about safety isn’t just a task; it’s an expectation, a promise, and a shared responsibility.

Creating a Proactive Safety Culture

  • In a high-energy camp environment, safety must be more than just a box to check; it’s a mindset the team lives by, woven into every interaction and decision they make. 
  • Make it viral. We live in a world where viral moments happen rapidly all around us. What can you do to make your safety training viral? Add some playfulness while reinforcing essential safety components.
  • Use catchphrases and cultural anchors. Over the decades, there have been catchphrases that came, went, or stuck. Undoubtedly, your camp uses some, such as “see something, say something,” “camp is for the camper,” “challenge by choice,” or “observable and interruptible.” Using catchphrases and cultural anchors helps communities maintain their identity and navigate challenges. Are you teaching or using such catchphrases in a way that serves your foundational safety practices?
  • Make daily safety briefings a habit. Gather staff each day for a quick, focused safety briefing. Highlight specific risks for the day — such as weather concerns, activity-specific hazards, and lessons learned from incidents — and reinforce safety themes that keep important principles top of mind.
  • Use signs and visual reminders. Create visual cues that align with your camp’s personality. Humor, eye-catching designs, and even camper-created signs make safety reminders more memorable. Team members are frequently reminded of their safety commitments by tive safety practices. This relationship helps new team members learn from real-life stories and examples, not just manuals.
  • Institute a duty of care relay. Set up a relay where staff pass along a “duty of care” baton as they move through safety-related tasks, such as checking lifeguard equipment, testing a fire alarm, or ensuring a camper has a buddy. This exercise reinforces that duty of care is ongoing and each individual has shared responsibilities that everyone must address.
  • Identify hazards and risks. A well-trained eye is one of the best risk management tools available. By making hazard and risk identification an integral part of camp life, team members develop an intuitive ability to spot issues before they become incidents.
  • Share unsafe actions, unsafe conditions. A near miss is an opportunity to identify a weakness, but we often don’t report or discuss things that almost happened. Sharing near misses provides insights into potential patterns and helps leadership identify opportunities for added training or procedural adjustments. 
  • Take safety walks. Camp teams rarely need help getting their steps in. However, training teams to identify hazards during their daily routines maximizes your chance to prevent injuries and incidents. Building situational awareness among all team members makes your safety mindset even stronger.
  • Build in risk radar. Train one team member to be a “risk spotter” when learning and participating in some camp activities (such as team hiking, swimming, or using specialized equipment). The risk spotter points out potential hazards and makes real-time safety adjustments. This builds awareness of everyday risks and the importance of maintaining a risk radar to prevent issues before they occur.
  • Institute easy incident reporting. Collective communication is critical; providing team members with simple ways to provide information and communicate creates a transparent culture. Consider rewarding team members who proactively report. 
  • Use creative approaches to activity safety. High-risk activities are part of typical camp offerings. Giving staff a pocket card with tips and visual refreshers of rules and roles can promote consistency and informed behavior among team members during these activities.
     

Emergency Preparedness

When emergencies happen, response time is everything. Regular drills, easy-to-follow emergency action plans, and simple decision-making frameworks prepare staff to act confidently under pressure.

  • Emergency Action Plans (EAPs). Ensure your EAPs cover diverse scenarios, including medical emergencies, severe weather, and active intruder threats. Make EAPs accessible in high-traffic areas, where staff can review them often.
  • Skill-building drills. Regularly scheduled drills for fire, severe weather, violent critical incidents, and other emergency scenarios reinforce preparedness, helping team members practice and gain confidence. Breaking drills down into clear, actionable steps — and taking time to reflect afterward — gives the team tools to respond calmly and effectively under pressure.
  • Five-second rule. If it takes more than five seconds to locate, it’s a problem. Create a scavenger hunt in which team members locate essential emergency items (such as first aid kits, emergency exits, radios, AEDs, EAPs, and evacuation rally points) within five seconds, no matter where they are in camp. This game reinforces familiarity with the camp layout and critical safety resources while making it engaging and memorable. 

Leadership Accountability

When team members feel confident and empowered, safety naturally improves. Creating an open environment and supporting staff decision-making make a meaningful difference.

  • Open-door safety policy. Encourage team members to share concerns openly. Don’t wait for the team to use the open door; instead, “bring the open door to them,” and have supervisors frequently visit activities, cabins, and mealtimes to create an accessible leadership presence.
  • Empowerment in decision-making. Give team members real decision-making power, especially in higher-risk areas. When the team is trusted to make calls, they take greater responsibility for safe operations.
  • What would you do? Break team members into small groups and give them real-life scenarios they might encounter, from a lost camper to bullying behavior. Asking this question and discussing the answers helps team members think critically about their safety and problem-solving roles.
  • Guardian of safety. Gamify safety and foster peer accountability. Assign rotating badges to team members who demonstrate outstanding attention to safety, giving them the “Guardian of Safety” role for the day. This person helps spot risks and reminds others to stay vigilant. The team can then “pass on” the badge to others, making it a point of pride.

Engaging Campers and Families in Safety

Safety isn’t just a team responsibility; campers and families play a role too. You build a more comprehensive safety culture by giving them essential safety tools and accountability.

  • Engaging orientation sessions. Use fun, engaging presentations at the start of each session to teach campers the basics of camp safety and what they can do to help. What will make it stick? Make it interactive, and use humor and storytelling to capture their attention.
  • Pathways to reporting concerns. Create multiple safe pathways for campers and participants to report concerns. With options like a letter to the director that can be dropped in a mailbox at mealtime, small group check-ins with higher-level leadership, or intentional question prompts that measure their well-being, campers can feel assured that their voices matter.
  • Safety awareness through games. Make learning safety skills fun using games that reinforce hazard awareness, such as scavenger hunts, for hidden safety reminders or relay races that practice emergency responses.
  • Partner with families/caregivers through pre-season education. Before the camp season begins, provide families/caregivers with clear, engaging information on behavior expectations, emergency procedures, reporting concerning or harmful behaviors, and how safety is embedded in camp life. This can be shared through a webinar, a detailed handbook, or a welcome packet. When guardians understand the camp’s approach to safety, they can better prepare their campers, reinforcing important guidelines before they arrive.

Continuous Improvement

A culture of safety isn’t static — it’s continuously evolving. By fostering a mindset of improvement, camps can maintain and exceed safety standards.

  • Rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal. Skills used only occasionally in high-risk activities such as aquatics and ropes courses should have continuous mid-season rehearsals. Rehearsal is critical to practicing rescue skills, EAPs, and procedures that need attention. PS — document that you’re doing this!
  • Refreshing training. Just as sports teams review the basics before each game, camps should emphasize continuous safety training, using refreshers and case studies to prevent complacency.
  • Feedback and reflection sessions. Host open sessions where team members can share their thoughts. Acknowledge the team’s role in maintaining safety, and actively seek their ideas for improvements.
  • Safety rewind and redesign. After an incident, gather leadership for a quick, story-based debrief called “Safety Rewind.” Start by narrating the incident as a story from start to finish, emphasizing the timeline and critical moments. This keeps everyone focused on the actual scenario and minimizes blame. Next, invite staff to “redesign” the outcome by brainstorming changes to prevent similar incidents. Encourage each person to contribute one improvement, whether revising protocols, adding reminders, or creating new catchphrases. Document these updates visibly (on a whiteboard or digital board) so everyone sees the impact of their ideas.

If You Build a Strong Foundation, Camp Will Thrive

Studies also demonstrate the long-term positive impact of safety culture on youth outcomes. A proactive approach to safety management supports physical safety as well as emotional and developmental security (Mullen et al., 2017). Fostering environments that prioritize safety, camps, and youth-serving programs not only reduces the likelihood of incidents, but also enhances the quality of the youth experience, ultimately contributing to positive growth and development (Sibthorp et al., 2021). 

A true camp safety culture is a living, breathing part of daily camp life. Built on respect, trust, and a shared commitment, it’s the foundation that makes camp a place where everyone feels valued and secure. When safety is second nature, camp becomes more than a program; it becomes a thriving community. 

References

  • Duerden, M. D., Taniguchi, S. T., & Widmer, M. A. (2015). Impact of outdoor programs on youth development. Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership, 7(2), 128–135.
  • Mullen, J., Kelloway, E. K., & Teed, M. (2017). Employers’ and employees’ responsibilities for health and safety in the workplace: A meta-analysis of safety climate and safety outcomes. Safety Science, 94, 121-130.
  • Sibthorp, J., Bialeschki, D., & Browne, L. (2021). Recreation and risk: Youth engagement in outdoor environments. Youth & Society, 53(4), 489-507.
  • Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (2017). Reducing risks for youth in sports programs: Role of coaches and youth organizations. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 64(2), 317-326.
  • Zohar, D., & Luria, G. (2003). The influence of leadership on the effectiveness of safety culture. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 276–283.

Tori Barnes Adams has spent 25 years directing day and resident camp and youth development programs with focused work on leadership and learning development, risk and crisis management, and LGBTQ+ issues. She currently works in the insurance industry as a risk consultant focusing on the camp market. As the former assistant director of accreditation with the American Camp Association, she is a strong advocate for health and safety in camps and served on ACA’s Crisis Hotline Team. She resides in California.

Photo courtesy of Lexington Recreation and Community Programs, Lexington, MA, Girl Scouts of Silver Sage, Boise, ID, Tom Sawyer Camp, Altadena, CA.

The views and opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Camp Association or ACA employees.