As ACA gets ready to launch the request for proposals for our first round of grants through the Character at Camp initiative, it’s a great time to start sharing findings from our recent landscape scan.

As a reminder, ACA has adopted a broad definition of character for this initiative, like the one the Character Lab provides: "Intentions and actions that benefit other people as well as ourselves." Rather than tell you what "good character" looks like, our intent is for every camp to consider what character means to the communities and youth they serve.

Building from our initial Character at Camp Pulse Survey launched in February 2024, Abt Global, Delta Consulting Group, and ACA have conducted a landscape scan designed to explore more deeply how the camp field incorporates character work into different parts of their organizations. One of the landscape scan activities was a survey where we asked camp leaders about the specific character strengths they focus on at their camp; what resources they use to inform their work and what resources they still need; how character is included in their marketing and outreach efforts; how character is included in their hiring and training practices; and how they evaluate their character efforts at camp. 

Launched in early October, the survey received over 700 responses from camp professionals (91 percent of respondents were in a camp leadership role such as a CEO, program director). Respondents were evenly split from camps providing day, overnight, and both types of programming. About 52 percent of respondents were from organizations that are strictly camps and about a third of respondents were from organizations that have camp departments/divisions but offer other programming, too. Nearly half of respondents were from independent nonprofit camps and about one-third were from nonprofits that are affiliated with youth-serving organizations. 

In this first blog of a four-part series, learn about the type of character strengths camps focus on and the resources they use and still need to inform their work. 

Here’s what we learned:

• Respondents most reported focusing on these six character strengths at camp (out of 20 possible options): kindness (39 percent); respect (36 percent); confidence (33 percent); teamwork (33 percent); appreciation for diversity (29 percent); leadership (27 percent). About 11 percent of respondents shared at least one character strength they believed was not otherwise listed/represented (e.g., spirituality, inclusivity).
• One-third of respondents said their camp uses a curriculum, framework, or resource, and of those camps using a curriculum/framework/resource, two-thirds said it was meeting their needs.
• Respondents commonly mentioned needing resources such as training and toolkits, including activities, tip sheets, and other materials for staff.
• Respondents frequently identified needing program development support including webinars, trainings, and workshops to improve their character-focused programming.

Character Strengths Camps Commonly Focus On*

* Respondents could select up to three character strengths. Percentages are based on total responses.

So, what does this mean? 

These results provide an important snapshot of what character looks like in the camp field at the beginning of the Character at Camp Initiative. We now know (from a fairly large number of camps) the types of character strengths camps consider important to their work at camp. There is something heartwarming and unifying about the idea that camps are collectively promoting kindness, respect, confidence, teamwork, and appreciation for diversity, among staff and campers as a field. We also know that there is room for growth in terms of how many camps use character curricula, frameworks, or resources and we heard the types of character resources that camps believe would best support the camp field to more deeply think about character.   

What are three things you can do as a camp?

1. If you don’t already emphasize character at your camp, consider starting to focus on a few of the most reported character strengths such as kindness, respect, confidence, teamwork, and appreciation for diversity.
2. Connect with and learn from other camps doing character focused work to learn about what is working and not working for them.
3. Attend ACA’s Character Academy events to learn more about the Character at Camp Initiative and how you can use these resources to improve your program.

What are the next steps? 

ACA will use this information to inform future phases of the project including the application process camps will apply to, in-person and virtual training opportunities, and educational tools and resources that are provided to camps. ACA plans to improve access to character-related resources and to make them more usable to support camps’ communications about their character development work with others.

Stay tuned for part two of our four-part blog series sharing the results of ACA’s Character at Camp Landscape Scan. Learn more about the initiative or email character@ACAcamps.org with questions.

Authored by Rob Lubeznik-Warner, PhD (Delta Consulting Group), Allison Dymnicki, PhD (Abt Global), Sarah Acheson-Field (Abt Global), and Kevin Geoghegan, MS (University of Utah)