https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/camp-counselor-self-care-guide-emotional-physical-well-being

As a camp counselor, you have many responsibilities to juggle, including home life, camp life, and life after camp. It’s important to prioritize your physical and emotional health, as they are...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/five-essentials-supporting-staff-mental-health-well-being

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define mental health as “your emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It can therefore affect every stage of life and impact how you...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/continuous-improvement-program-quality-lessons-learned

Program quality (PQ) is essential to youth programs, and research shows that high-quality programs are directly linked to more positive outcomes. PQ refers to the environment that is created at...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/lost-boys-finding-their-way-summer-camp

Are boys in crisis? Popular literature (Raising Cain, Lost Boys, Boys and Sex) and theater (Dear Evan Hansen) seem to suggest so. Terms such as “boy code” and “toxic masculinity” further paint a path...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/continuous-quality-improvement

In my decades-long career as a camp professional and outdoor educator, one of my favorite parts has been problem-solving. How can I, in whatever role I find myself, help make the camper experience...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/sankofa-value-meaningful-debrief-end-camp-season

Another camp season is complete. After working overtime to ensure that every session was special, enriching, and fun-filled, we camp professionals are finally able to exhale. We did it! The energy,...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/safe-space-trauma-informed-trauma-infused-what-know-how-help

Across the land, schools and summer camps have embraced a movement to better understand trauma and how it affects a child’s ability to learn and self-regulate their behavior. As that knowledge...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/did-you-know-update-your-knowledge

Staying abreast of health-related updates that impact camp practices is challenging but worth the effort, especially for readers who supervise staff providing care to campers and/or other staff. Here...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/evaluating-bereavement-camps

Spending time in nature is often therapeutic and provides many benefits, such as improving cognitive functioning (Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan, 2008) and improving memory (Berto, 2005). Spending...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/profile-2017-recipients-eleanor-p-eells-award-excellence-research-practice

In 2015, ACA, with the help of the Committee for the Advancement of Research and Evaluation (CARE), created the Eleanor P. Eells Award for Excellence in Research in Practice. This award is designed...