Quality Programs Level 2
Date
Location
San Diego, CA 92108

Cost
1st Person ACA Member: $200
1st person Nonmember: $400
2nd Person ACA Member: $150
2nd Person Nonmember: $350
Become A Member and Save!
Quality Programs Level 2 is immersive, in-depth training designed to help camps move beyond foundational practices to foster deeper camper engagement and connection. Building on the skills from Level 1, this training equips participants with strategies to strengthen interactive staff practices that support social-emotional learning and enhance day-to-day engagement. Attendees will also refine their use of the Social Emotional Learning Program Quality Assessment for Camps tool to evaluate these higher-level practices. Ready to take your team further? Bring a colleague and continue your camp’s journey toward meaningful, lasting program improvement.

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.
Karen Greenesmith, ACA (bio coming soon)
McKenna Crews, ACA (bio coming soon)
Part 1 (1 hour) 8:30–9:30 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) 9:30 a.m.–12:30 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
Earn 4.0 CEC for this event. More information on CECs can be found here.