Summer camp is one of the highlights of a child’s entire year… and their experience depends of your ability to nurture a safe, inclusive and supportive camp culture.
How do you ensure the physical and emotional safety of your campers? Create opportunities for all kids to shine? Establish norms that your staff, counselors and campers take ownership of?
This is a herculean task that has many possible answers. But one thing’s for certain – it’s one of the camp director’s most serious responsibilities.
After over 10 years of working at summer camps in a range of leadership capacities and earning a Master’s Degree in Educational Theater from NYU, I offer you 4 proven ways to build a camp culture that’s safe, inclusive and supportive.
1. Establish Greeting and Goodbye Rituals: How do your campers start and end their day at camp? A specific activity or routine that signals the start and end of the camp day helps ease the transition from one safe space to another.
Consider having your supervisors initiate a welcome/goodbye song. Your counselors could facilitate a quick circle game. Be present during these critical transition periods to check-in and ensure everything runs smoothly.
Whatever ritual(s) you choose, make sure everyone on your team understands the expectation and intention of your decision. In order for greeting and goodbye procedures to be effective, everyone needs to understand why they’re doing what they’re doing, how to do it, and be consistent in their implementation.
2. Encourage Community Building Games that take place in circles and give all participants an equal opportunity to be both seen and heard.
Here are some popular activities:
Name/Fun Fact: Everyone in the circle shares their name and something interesting about themselves. Have your counselor start by modeling, “Hi, my name is _________ and I ____________________”)
Rose/Thorn: Have all participants share their “rose” (a pleasant experience) and their “thorn” (a more challenging experience) for the day.
Fortunately/Unfortunately: The group works together to create a fictional story. Your counselor starts the story by saying, “Fortunately….” The next camper in the circle adds on to the story by saying, “Unfortunately…” Continue around the circle alternating fortunately/unfortunately.
The morning assembly, lunch, and dismissal are key times for counselors to form circles, play a game, and check-in with their campers.
3. Schedule Special Activities that generate positive buzz, increase participation and give members of your community common experiences that make them feel closer.
Consider adding one or more of these special events to your program this summer:
Song & Banner Day: Campers create a song and banner around a theme you choose. This culminates in a camp-wide sharing where all of the groups present their banner and sing their song. After the sharing, display the banners in a prominent place as a reminder of this positive and exciting community-building experience.
Carnival: Games such as a Tire Toss, Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Balloon-Shaving, Face-Painting, and a Mock Marriage Booth are incredibly fun, easy and inexpensive to set-up. Invite campers and parents to play the games and win tickets that they trade in for prizes. You can get prizes in bulk by visiting http://www.orientaltrading.com
Guest Artists & Entertainers: Bring in a professional artist to facilitate a workshop or perform a show for your campers. Many campers will go home and say that this was one of the highlights of their entire summer.
4. Publish a Newsletter: Whether you write your newsletter in a program like Mail Chimp or Constant Contact or use a word processor, commit to writing a newsletter this summer.
Here are some tips for success:
If chosen and executed deliberately, then your system for creating a safe camp culture will allow your campers to thrive and have fun.
If you’d like to have a brief conversation and determine if I can create a fun and memorable experience for your summer camp, then pick up the phone and call me on my toll-free line @ 1-855-624-4238.
My name is Evan, and I wish you all the best in making this summer the most safe, fun and memorable one yet!