2025 Quality Programs Level 2
Date
Location
Dallas, TX 75207
Cost
Member: $160
Nonmember: $320
Additional person from the same camp
Member: $140
Nonmember: $280
*Participants must complete Quality Programs Level I to participate in this training
Building on the skills learned from Quality Programs Level I*, Quality Programs Level 2 teaches participants what interactive and engaging staff practices are, how these practices relate to social and emotional learning for young people, how to incorporate engagement strategies into staff training. As in Level 1 we we cover how these supportive practices are assessed using the Social Emotional Learning Program Quality Assessment for Camp tool.
Steph Love, MS Experiential Education, has spent her career at camp, working in almost every role imaginable from CIT to camp director. In 2004, Steph co-founded her own camp, Positive Energy Outdoors, providing access to unique outdoor programming, including dog sledding and driving draft horses, kayaking, rock climbing, and her community’s first nature play-based after-school childcare program. Through camps and program partnerships, she has created safe and supportive outdoor experiences for thousands of children and adults of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Steph uses her camp expertise to design and facilitate workshops on social emotional learning, equity, character, and quality. She has coached camps and out of school time programs in 35 states and around the world through her work with the Forum for Youth Investment’s Weikart Center, and her current work with ACA and the SeriousFun Children’s Network. Steph lives in Duluth, MN with her teenage son, sled dogs, and rescue black lab. She is a volunteer adaptive alpine skiing and kayak instructor, and is slowly transforming her lawn into a pollinator garden.
Jessie Dickerson serves as ACA's Manager of Program Quality Systems. In this role, she supports camps in continuously improving the quality of their programs through trainings, coaching, and a community of practice. Ensuring that camp is truly for all kids is what fuels Jessie's work. She's dedicated to supporting camps in striving for equity—for camps to be a safe and supportive space for all youth, which is a critical piece of program quality.
Part 1 (1 hour) 8:00–9:00 a.m.
- Welcome and Introductions
- Prepare for Continuous Program Quality Improvement
- What is continuous program quality improvement?
- Prepare to Assess the Quality of Programs
- Observation Practice
- Next Steps: Plan your self-assessment process
Part 2 (3 hours) 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
- Interactive and Engaging Environment Scale Review
- Deeper Dive into Items
- Staff Practices: Cultivating Empathy
- Creating Interactive and Engaging Environments at Camp
- Next Steps: Take it back and train your staff
- Closing Reflection
