Hello and happy fall from the ACA Research Team!  With the change in seasons comes an exciting time for Research 360 as we launch ACA’s 5-year research project, the outer circle of ACA’s new strategic direction focused on research and evaluation.  In past posts I identified the purpose of this project and the ACA volunteers who will advise the project over the next 5 years.

If you’ve been following these posts you might be familiar with the two facets of Research 360:  ACA’s new full circle approach to research and evaluation. Quick review:  we have the outer circle, which represents the 360 degree process that ACA’s 5-year research project will follow, and the center, the local camp research and evaluation efforts, around which this process moves. 

Hello camp researchers and evaluators! Welcome again to Research 360: ACA’s new full circle approach to research and evaluation. I promised in last week’s post that I would dive deeper into ACA’s 5-year research project, which is one element of Research 360 (local camp evaluation is the other). 

Greetings from the ACA Research Team!  As you might have heard, ACA has identified research as one of its strategic priorities for the next 5 years. This is exciting news for camp professionals because it promises new data, recognition, and support for the camp experience from individual camps to the camp industry as a whole. Every camp has an important role to play in this strategic direction, and a lot to gain from engaging with research and evaluation at the local camp level.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with a camp staff member who didn’t have a great story about a transformational experience that happened to some child at their camp. The shy camper that blossomed in a supportive environment, the child that took six tries before they could finally step off the zip line platform, the sullen teen on the fringe of the group who returned from a wilderness trip enthused by newfound respect and independence. We all have those stories. What many of us do not have is the evidence back these stories up.

With ACA’s new strategic focus on accreditation and research comes the need to evolve our practices and services at a national level. In order to accomplish these important tasks, two special task forces have been working diligently to prepare recommendations that will address these programs on a national level. While these national tasks forces are looking at how this new focus on research and accreditation (or BIG R and BIG A, as we’ve taken to calling them) will play out nationally, many have asked what they can to advance this strategy at the local level.