This Research 360 blog discusses how to use data to advance your camp's continuous quality improvement.

This list includes things camp professionals want school professionals to know after their experiences this summer at camp.

We all know that representation matters. We sculpt the way we see the world and how we interact with it by what we come into contact with. Our reality is shaped by the people we encounter and the way they represent themselves and their identities. We learn to trust or not people based on how we see different identities depicted in the media, and we learn to “other” people when our culture shows that it is acceptable to do so.

This Research 360 blog post discusses ACA's new, easy-to-use, free survey tool that helps measure the outcomes of camp programs.

To continue with our blog series spotlighting the work our Community of Practice has been doing, I’m sharing what our Assessment Development Working Group worked on over the winter. As a reminder, we created three distinct working groups focused on Continuous Quality Improvement Systems Design, Assessment Development, Toolkit and Resource Development, and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Integration Team to weave these values throughout our program quality work.

When camps receive negative COVID-19 screening tests, it is a result of deliberate planning, excellent communication, earned compliance, diligent execution — and a little luck! The situation of achieving negative tests is reflective of the multiple layers of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) your camp has employed and program changes that come as a benefit of these layers. Camps with lower degrees of protective layers are at greater risk of COVID-19 transmission. Many camps ask what can be changed or loosened in their programs after negative testing. Can they remove masks?

Part three of this Research 360 blog series discusses how to structure summer camp staff training so it can transfer to camp work.

Of the estimated 476,000 people diagnosed with Lyme and tick-borne diseases in the United States each year, 25 percent of those are kids. That’s a staggering 326 children diagnosed with these debilitating diseases each day! And because children ages five to 14 make up an especially high-risk group (per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), it is crucial that campers — and the counselors responsible for them  — understand the risk and how to stay safer.

Part two of this Research 360 blog series covers what competencies summer staff should learn during training and how training effectiveness is influenced by characteristics of camp staff.

I worked for years at camp, in a variety of positions, not because I was focused on my career, but because of the feeling I got doing the work. I enjoyed it. I was happy. But at the time, I could not articulate how camp was preparing me for “the real world”, or giving me the skills that I would need to call upon later in life. Now, after starting my own nonprofit organization, I realize that camp gave me invaluable skills that have led me to a meaningful and fulfilling career. I’m sharing them here, so that maybe they can inspire future camp staff: