Over the course of three years, the American Camp Association collaborated with Abt Global and SeriousFun Children’s Network on a special project: Promoting Character Through Counselors-in-Training Programs at Medical Specialty Camps, made possible through the support from the John Templeton Foundation.
For more than a century, character development has been foundational to the camp experience, as each camp can offer a variety of opportunities to develop important character strengths and skills. Acknowledging the formative role camp plays in young people’s lives, there is an opportunity to understand character development from the perspective of medical specialty camps where campers use their character strengths and resilience to overcome adversity regularly. Further, focusing on counselor-in-training programs highlights the unique perspectives of adolescents and young adults living with disabilities and illnesses as they strived to “give back” to and become leaders in their camp communities. Building knowledge and understanding about the development of character (and specific character strengths) in resilient populations is an important contribution to the study of summer camps, as well as the greater youth development ecosystem.
This project engaged 12 medical specialty camps from around the world in a community of practice to create, disseminate, and implement new ideas, specifically about how to promote character in counselor-in-training programs in medical specialty camps. The community of practice participants and project partners collaboratively developed a character development framework and a toolkit designed to explain to camp practitioners how to elevate seven character strengths in their unique camp settings. These strengths were chosen by the community of practice members for their peers working at medical specialty camps, to prioritize character work that prioritizes the unique population of adolescents and young adults living with disabilities and illnesses.
Toolkit
- Character Playbook for CIT Programs at Medical Specialty Camps
- Training Videos (in production)
- Facilitation Guides (in production)
- Community of Practice Suggested Resources (in review)
The co-created toolkit is a comprehensive resource collection that includes videos, facilitator’s guides, and the first-ever Character Playbook for CIT Programs at Medical Specialty Camps. The materials are organized by each of the 7 character strengths, and provide research-based sections that cover: definition and background, relevance to youth living with disabilities and illnesses, inclusion and accessibility recommendations, further resources and a citation list. These are available free of charge for the medical specialty camp industry, to assist them in training their camp staff.
In this project, the partner organizations also explored the process of the Community of Practice and the development of the 7 character traits and toolkit through rigorous research and evaluation, resulting in a scholarly article and industry presentations. We wanted to know:
- What is the value, if any, in participating in a virtual community of practice focused on character development within medical specialty counselor-in-training programs?
- What are the key elements of the virtual community of practice process for camps and character development?
- To what extent does the toolkit create a greater understanding of, interest in, and commitment to promoting character strengths?
- To what extent is the character development toolkit developed by the community of practice and project team accessible, adaptable, and scalable?
- To what extent is the overall project model scalable and generalizable?
The potential impacts of this proposed project are wide and far reaching. First, we increased the community of practice members’ understanding of what character looks like, how to promote specific character strengths, and how to train others to promote specific character strengths in the medical specialty camp context. Second, we developed short playbooks for each of the seven character strengths with accompanying videos and resources to share with our network of more than 2000 ACA member camps and hundreds of thousands of campers, parents, and staff who participate in camp each year. Third, we collected best practices and lessons learned when convening a community of practice with camp professionals, which will inform future camp initiatives involving communities of practice far into the future.
Camp Participants
- Double H Ranch (New York)
- Camp Rainbow Bangalore (India)
- Barretstown (Ireland)
- Kan Etwal (Haiti)
- Flying Horse Farms (Ohio)
- The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp (Connecticut)
- Camp Ho Mita Koda (Ohio/Michigan)
- Camp High Hopes (Iowa)
- PA Lions Beacon Lodge (Pennsylvania)
- Camp Aldersgate (Arkansas)
- Melwood (Maryland)
- Camp TLC (Texas)
For more information about this project, reach out to Bristol Posatko, director of grant operations.
This project made possible through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation.
