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/spoiler-alert-you-wont-be-around-forever

Whether you plan to be at your camp for another 2, 5, 10, or 20 years, it’s not too early to start your camp’s succession planning. Camps are unique businesses that closely reflect their owners or...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/make-strategic-decisions-not-guesses

Enjoy one of camp’s sweetest sounds as you walk up on a dining hall or an evening campfire and hear a chorus of voices singing a favorite camp song — 100 campers, 250 campers, 500 campers — can you...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/personal-finance-camp-pros

My story as a camp professional is classic. I spent a summer after college as a canoe trip leader at a camp in northern Wisconsin, expecting that it was going to be a no-big-deal, fun summer — but it...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/mitigating-long-term-bereavement-risks-addressing-family-grief

Bereavement camps for children are now commonplace around the United States (McClatchey & Wimmer, 2018). Some of these are recreational, and others are more clinically focused. Most do not...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/delegation-donts-camp-directors

Delegation can make you effective or lazy, so, as a camp director, what are the things you should never delegate? The Mission Others should be in the room when you’re figuring out the mission;...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/healthy-inside-out-role-mental-health-counseling-summer-camp

I spent my childhood summers at a sleepaway camp in Pennsylvania, and I loved it. When I turned 18 in 2021, I couldn’t wait to work as a counselor myself. I was following in my mother’s footsteps;...

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/yes-improvising-your-revenue-stream

As industry and societal expectations push for updated facilities, in-depth programming, equitably paid summer staff, and larger year-round teams to make it all happen, camps face the challenge of...

https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/reframing-mental-health-camp

Mental health at camp has always been a challenge. But for many camps, it wasn’t until worldwide stressors started piling up in 2020 that this challenge became overwhelming.