Belonging has always been central to the camp experience. But in today’s social and work climate — shaped by post-pandemic disconnection, shifting generational expectations, and the rising call for authenticity — belonging is not just a nice-to-have. It’s essential. And more than that, it’s strategic.
Belonging is critical, not just a touchy-feely construct, but necessary — and lack of it can have consequences such as physical illness, cardiovascular disease increase, mental health implications, and more (Henley, 2024). For our youth, and especially our teens, to connect to a foundation rooted in belonging can be crucial (Anderson, 2023).
This shift reflects a broader cultural change: the gradual disappearance of “third places.” For generations, people found connection, identity, and a sense of community in spaces beyond home or work — places like churches, coffee shops, libraries, and community centers. These informal gathering places offered consistent, low-stakes opportunities for people to build relationships and feel part of something larger. As these spaces become less accessible or relevant in many communities, people are increasingly looking elsewhere to meet those same social and emotional needs. And for many, that “elsewhere” has become the workplace — or institutions like camps — where they seek not only purpose and structure, but also friendship, meaning, and belonging.
As third places disappear (Livni, 2025), camps are turning into more than summer destinations; they’re becoming the communities people long for. However, tapping into this opportunity requires us to think beyond cabins and campfires. It requires embedding belonging, not just into programming but into the very architecture of our organizations. That means recruiting and onboarding staff with inclusion in mind, designing decision-making processes that lift up all voices, and building organizational cultures where everyone — camper, counselor, kitchen staffer, or board member — knows they matter.
We believe belonging must be part of your organization’s strategic infrastructure, embedded in how you plan, how you lead, and how you show up every day.
At Frost Valley YMCA, our strategic planning process reinforced this understanding. Through it, we learned that the process of planning can cultivate belonging and that a strong strategic plan must make room for all people to feel connected, empowered, and included.
Belonging in Camps and Organizational Culture
In camps, belonging often forms organically around cabins, campfires, and shared traditions. But our camp operates beyond the summer season, with full-time, seasonal, and part-time staff who don’t always live or work on-site. This reality makes belonging more complex — and more urgent. So rather than relying on physical presence or shared moments alone, belonging must be built through intentional systems and on a culture that welcomes people, affirms identity, and empowers contribution.
This trend is especially evident among Millennials and Gen Z, who are looking for shared purpose and inclusion in what sociologists are calling “micro-communities.” These are smaller, tightly bonded groups built around shared values, identities, or missions. They are intentional, emotionally safe, and cocreated places where people feel genuinely seen and supported. Camps, by nature of their structure and spirit, are uniquely positioned to provide just that.
We found that micro-communities are a key dynamic in this work. Whether a cabin group, a kitchen shift, or an arts team, these smaller circles of connection are often where the deepest bonds form. A strategic plan can and should support these communities by aligning them with a shared vision while respecting their uniqueness.
When people share a common interest, goal, or identity it creates a sense of belonging and vulnerability. As camps, we do this by allowing children to self-select activities, playing games with a focus on diversity (such as “Mingle,” where campers get into small groups and find a common attribute), and asking campers to have buddy checks with a designated partner assigned to the same swim group at the waterfront.
As high-level leaders, how do we translate this into our employee culture, our culture of service, and our strategic plan?
In our case, we put out invites to group leaders, alumni, and staff to join online sessions for data collection and created focus groups. Then we facilitated these sessions with a goal of creating connections to develop belonging as early as possible. Through introductions, ice breakers, encouraging participants to share their stories with one another, and then having the group give feedback through a series of facilitator-led questions, the sessions were equal parts creating and living the strategic plan. Staff were brought together for a full-day retreat, in which the focus was on the strategic plan, but also simultaneously on breaking the staff into smaller groups — at times based on department, area of interest, or expertise. The results included both drafting what would become our strategic plan as well as forming bonds and developing connections that would last well beyond the actual plan.
In practice:
What we did — Created cross-functional planning groups and discussion spaces where people would share their “Frost Valley story” and find commonalities.
What we wish we’d done — Included more intentional outreach to new or part-time staff. Potential mentoring, specifically with staff who work remotely or hybrid.
What we’re still doing — Supporting organic and intentional community building across levels and departments. Events such as smoothie luncheons, Earth Day cleanup events, and community programs. We focus on gathering people into communal spaces — in person or virtually — and through choices as detailed as seating that will help people to find a micro-community. Our yearly strategic plan goals reflect this focus.
Sustaining Belonging Through the Planning Process
We learned through our planning process and by living through the last two years in transition that inclusivity is a rhythm and requires careful balancing and calibrating (Yohn, 2021). It’s easy to do too little, and it’s easy to do too much. Most importantly, it’s easy to do things that miss the mark. While our engagement efforts at the beginning were strong, we’ve since reflected that we missed opportunities to build more cyclical feedback loops as the plan evolved.
Creating a culture of belonging requires more than a seat at the table — it requires intentional, continuous feedback loops that make people feel heard, valued, and connected to something larger than themselves (Wormington, 2025). We have come to understand that the quality of our feedback systems directly impacts the strength of our culture. When staff feel safe to voice concerns, share ideas, or challenge assumptions, they’re more likely to stay engaged and committed. That sense of psychological safety — the cornerstone of Google’s Project Aristotle findings on effective teams (Poyton, 2024) — must be intentionally cultivated through both structure and tone and modeled by leadership in every interaction.
Building a culture of belonging within the framework of strategic planning requires more than simply inviting input; it demands that organizations create intentional, accessible, and varied feedback channels that align with the planning process itself. At our camp, we employed a mix of formal tools — staff surveys, performance reviews, and structured listening sessions — as well as informal avenues such as suggestion channels, department-level conversations, and even playful formats like our “Hot Wings, Hot Ones” Town Hall. (Confused? Google Hot Ones!) These engagements were not just about gathering opinions; they were about embedding voice into our strategy.
However, the presence of feedback channels is only the beginning. The true test lies in what follows: systematically analyzing input for themes, converting the analysis into actionable insights, prioritizing what can be addressed, and visibly implementing changes. And especially crucial, it means closing the loop by communicating back to staff how their ideas shaped the strategy. This is where we fell short at times. While we did offer regular updates and maintained an open dialogue, we didn’t always provide clear, structured follow-through to show how feedback was used. This created missed opportunities for deeper trust and stronger ownership of the plan.
Strategic planning, when done well, is about more than developing a vision — it’s also about building a culture of shared accountability and inclusion. Feedback should be a continuous and integrated element that evolves alongside the strategy itself.
At its best, a strong culture of feedback becomes more than a management tool. It becomes part of the organizational identity. We have seen this in practice through the spacing and sequencing of our formal surveys, and by seeking feedback through other means, we have largely avoided feedback fatigue and seen measurable increases in team morale, better performance, and a sense of shared purpose. We want to create and consistently work at being a place where people want to stay, because they feel invested. In a field like camping and youth development, where community is everything, this kind of culture isn’t just a benefit. It’s a necessity.
In practice:
What we did — Updated staff during monthly meetings and kept the plan visible, instituted quarterly pulse checks and satisfaction surveys, and implemented structured staff takeaways for department leadership to streamline communication up and down the organization. And finally, we made play and laughter a central and intentional part of meetings.
What we wish we’d done — Offered structured, repeated opportunities for input between major planning milestones. Reported back with more detail on how feedback was incorporated into the next versions. Better connected the dots between day-to-day and strategic work.
What we’re still doing — Improving feedback systems with consistent check-ins, staff-led initiatives, and transparent communication. Finding the right balance between under and over communication.
Integrating Belonging into Your Strategic Planning
If you’re looking to integrate belonging into your own strategic planning, consider these steps grounded in our lived experience:
- Define what belonging means in your context.
At Frost Valley, it includes connection to people, purpose, place, and nature. It’s specific, not generic, and it considers what barriers exist to keep people from feeling they belong. - Invite participation across all staff types and roles.
We included many but learned the importance of structured follow-up to keep voices engaged. - Make belonging a design principle.
Belonging should be more than a byproduct. It should shape how you build programs, lead teams, design spaces, and evaluate progress. - Maintain the feedback loop.
Listening doesn’t end with the planning phase. Keep asking, keep responding, and keep connecting the dots.
Advice for Camp Leaders: Making Belonging Strategic
Belonging must show up not just in strategy sessions, but in everyday decisions, in the same way that culture building is an ongoing process that involves all levels of the organization and all of its people. Just as it is everyone’s responsibility to build culture, it is everyone’s responsibility to contribute to the strategic progress (Yohn, 2021).
Belonging becomes real through the daily design of how we work, lead, and communicate. We’ve worked hard to integrate belonging into our operational strategy in concrete, strategic ways:
In our approach to program design, we’ve made community building a central design principle — especially in arts and nature-based experiences where youth can express identity, connect to the land, and feel part of something larger than themselves.
Logistical considerations — like Wi-Fi access or communal seating — are now approached through a belonging lens: Does this help people feel connected, comfortable, and welcomed into shared spaces?
In building a shared staff culture, we focused on aligning expectations with support to foster both psychological safety and shared responsibility. This work came to life through our Leadership Framework, which articulates the values and behaviors we expect from one another, not just in leadership roles but across the organization.
We’re also working to reset expectations around individual responsibility for creating belonging, recognizing that it’s everyone’s job. A key shift has been activating our mid-level leaders — ensuring they serve as the first line of offense in modeling and maintaining a culture of inclusion.
In internal communications, we’re developing a clearer cadence for updates and dialogue, making space for both formal briefings and informal connection points. Importantly, we’re decentralizing communication across teams and systems, encouraging more two-way conversation rather than top-down broadcasts. The goal is clarity without rigidity, structure without silos.
In financial management and fundraising, we’re moving toward a culture of philanthropy and financial literacy. We’re working to empower team leaders not only to develop and manage their budgets, but to see themselves as stewards of our mission. This includes implementing deep transparency in financial reporting so that financial goals feel shared rather than hidden or abstract.
And finally, in accountability, we’re designing clear, department-level metrics to ensure that alignment and ownership cascade from the strategic plan all the way to daily work. When people understand how their efforts roll up into the bigger picture, belonging becomes tangible, trackable, and lived.
Strategic planning should reflect your camp’s character and provide a roadmap to express that character through a culture of belonging.
The main lesson? Belonging is built when people feel heard and when they see how their voice shapes outcomes.
Does your strategy make room for everyone to belong?
References
Anderson, J. (2023, March 3). A crisis of belonging. Edcast, Harvard Graduate School of Education. gse.harvard.edu/ideas/edcast/23/03/crisis-belonging
Livni, E. (2025, March 10). Where have all the ‘third places’ gone? The New York Times. nytimes.com/2025/02/28/business/third-place-meaning-starbucks.html
Poyton, B. (2024, March 28). Google’s Project Aristotle. Psych Safety. Psychsafety.com/googles-project-aristotle
Henley, D. (2024, March 25). A culture of belonging creates a team that thrives. Forbes. forbes.com/sites/dedehenley/2024/03/24/the-transformative-power-of-belonging-at-work/
Wormington, S. (2025, February 21). How to build belonging at work. Center for Creative Leadership. ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/create-better-culture-build-belonging-at-work/
Yohn, D. L. (2021, February 8). Company culture is everyone’s responsibility. Harvard Business Review. hbr.org/2021/02/company-culture-is-everyones-responsibility
Photo courtesy of Kiddie Keep Well Camp, Edison, NJ.
Vicky Eddings is the chief operating officer at Frost Valley YMCA. With a background in zoology and a long career with the Y, Vicky has extensive experience running successful day camps, resident camps, horse programs, environmental education, and conference programs and is responsible for executing the overall strategy and vision at Frost Valley YMCA. Vicky can be reached at [email protected].
Riel Peerbooms, MSW, is the chief executive officer at Frost Valley YMCA. He joined Frost Valley YMCA in 2023 after 15 years at another camp, Trail Blazers. Built by camp, Riel’s 30-year career as teacher, social worker, mental health counselor and camp professional in educational and camp settings in the New York City and tri-state area, started as a counselor and lifeguard at a summer camp in Upstate New York. Riel can be reached at [email protected].
Rob Totaro is the director of member advancement at the Alliance of New York State YMCAs, where he supports YMCAs across New York in strategic planning, board governance, and leadership development. With over a decade in the YMCA movement, he has guided countless organizations through long-term visioning processes, including facilitating Frost Valley YMCA’s strategic plan. Rob can be reached at [email protected].
