Researching the Benefits of Camp

“Sending kids to camp allows children to grow and learn good citizenship, social integration, personal development and social development, exploring his or her capabilities and being in a safe environment where they can grow, gain independence and take risks.”—Troy Glover, the director of the University of Waterloo’s Healthy Communities Research Network

It’s pretty easy for those who have attended camp to speak enthusiastically about how much it’s meant to them. Campers themselves are full of glowing stories about their summer camp experiences, but even adult camp alumni, many years later, can trace aspects of their personal success back to their time at camp.

For others, though, how camp provides these important benefits, and what types of benefits to expect from a summer camp experience, are not apparent. It was this fact —the general public’s unawareness of what makes camp great for children— that prompted a team of Canadian researchers to study and evaluate the impact of a camp experience.

Working with camp directors, staff, campers and camp alumni, the researchers conducted surveys and compiled observations focused on what a summer camp provides and how that affects children over their time at camp. Read about the study, its background and findings, on this Web site.

The research aimed to demonstrate and understand the initial, intermediate, and long-term value of the summer camp experience, and found several significant outcomes. Most importantly, the study was able to pinpoint what “children first learn at camp, what they do with that learned material and what impact it then has on who they become.” The researchers were able to identify 5 main areas of this growth.

There is, of course, quite a bit to explain about each of these areas, so I encourage you to read more about the study’s findings on their site. Also, there is a nice article about the study, complete with great quotes from camp directors, campers and staff members, published in Vaughan Today.

This is exciting stuff! We’ve often discussed the benefits of camp for children, so it’s nice to see this kind of organized, methodical verification. Now spread the word! Let’s help others understand how uniquely “camp is a place for kids to grow.”

Teens Seeking Sensations

If you spend time around teenagers, it’s easy to see them exhibit “sensation seeking” behaviors. They thrive on new experiences and stimuli of all kinds, and tend to take surprising risks. In fact it’s widely accepted within psychology that this personality trait is a dominant force in the lives of teen girls and boys. This sensation seeking is thought to be an evolutionary skill, something that helps teens learn new things, become more independent from their parents and to increase their social competence. Overall, it’s a good thing.

On the other hand, chasing novelty like this, even if they’re unaware of it, can sometimes get teenagers into trouble. As a young teen girl or boy is bombarded by urges to experience new things and to be included in their peer group, they may lack the cognitive development to temper risky behaviors, or blindly hold the perceived benefits of that behavior supremely important over everything else. For example, a girl may experiment with drugs at the urging of her friends, effectively ignoring the personal, legal and health consequences of that decision, because she values the approval of her peer group more. Put differently, it’s thought that risky teenage behavior can be understood as “sensation seeking” run amok.

It’s a dilemma; we want our teenagers to experience new things and meet new people, and thereby to learn and grow from that novelty, but we also want them to choose less risky behaviors and seek out positive experiences and peer influences. How to land on the right side of that equation?

Summer camp is well suited to provide this kind of positive sensation seeking for teens. Everyday at sleepaway camp, girls can enjoy new experiences, whether they be climbing a rock, the excitement of shooting a gun, or just making friends with new and different people.

Camp is a pool of positive peer pressure. Chock full of excellent role models, it promises to help teens channel their urge for novelty and their desire to connect with friends. Camp is also a place where teens can take acceptable risks, challenging themselves in exciting new ways, even as parents can be assured their children are kept safe, encouraged and supported. It’s just an ideal environment for teens seeking sensations. It’s no wonder they love it so much!

Parent, Alexandria, VA

You folks do this beautifully. We’ve tried two other camps, and THIS was what we’d been looking for the whole time. The people + the tradition + the philosophy = spectacular experience.

Cool Posters for Girls

Graphic artist Amanda Vissell has done it again and drawn four more super cool posters especially for girls. Each has a simple declaration and shows a girl smiling with great confidence and independence— “Explore,” Dream Big,” “Get Dirty,” and “Be You.” Click the image to see a larger version.

The artist explains:

I got down to basics a little more this time, imagining what we all need to see when we wake up in the morning. To know its not just okay to be who we are, but when we are ourselves we shine.

We love these posters because they line right up with camp, with the kind of encouragement and empowering experience time at Rockbrook provides our girls. Around here, we’re always exploring, creating something, dreaming up something imaginative. It’s just part of our daily life in the summer to be outside and get a little dirty in the forest. And perhaps most importantly, Rockbrook is a place where girls can relax and find the freedom and support to be their true selves. It’s where they can uncover hidden talents and admirable aspects of their personality. Camp is a magical place because, at least in part, it makes all of these possible.

Ready to explore? Let’s go!

Parent, Black Mountain, NC

RBC has got to be the most fun and rewarding summer experience a girl could have! Thanks to all the staff for their energy and talents, and willingness to work so hard to make Rockbrook such a wonderful place. We could write a book describing the positive aspects of RBC!

Back to School

This time of year, as we head back to school and the memories of our time at camp can seem far away, it’s a good idea to reflect upon some of the important habits and skills we learned during our stay at Rockbrook, and to realize how important they can be throughout the rest of the year.  But what are some of those values? What are some of the surprising things camp taught us that can still serve us well at school?

At Rockbrook this summer we learned:

—things are more fun when we include everyone
—you can be creative with just about anything
—making friends is easy when we respect and care for each other
—everything is better in a costume

Of course there are a lot of other ways camp helps kids grow too.

Peg Smith, the CEO of the American Camp Association, also wants kids to remember what they learned at camp, in particular the “Three Cs” — Confidence, Curiosity, and Character. Pack all these great things in your school backpack. You know camp is awesome; now make that true for school too!

SUCCESS Act – H.R. 5963

Have you heard of the SUCCESS Act (H.R. 5963), a bill introduced last year by US. Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York? “SUCCESS” is an acronym for (promoting) Students Using the Camp Community for Enrichment, Strength, and Success. Essentially this bill would direct the Secretary of Education to fund pilot programs exploring how the summer camp experience promotes physical activity and healthy lifestyles among children and youth, reduces summer learning loss, and promotes academic achievement.

It’s long been known among summer camp professionals, and among camp parents, that children who attend camp receive unique and valuable benefits. Because of camp, kids are better prepared for school when they return, are more physically fit by virtue of the activities at camp, and are more socially adept and emotionally mature (confident, independent, resilient). Likewise, it’s clear camp kids struggle less with childhood obesity and summer learning loss, two issues that are rampant and negatively impacting today’s children in America.

This legislation recognizes these benefits of a camp experience and aims to study how they can be more broadly known, made more widely available to children throughout the country, and how they can be more tightly integrated with school curricula. We know camp is powerful, but let’s talk about how and let’s get more children involved so they too can benefit from the experience. This bill would be a good step toward that goal.

The American Camp Association is promoting the SUCCESS Act as well. Here’s a nice summary.

Unfortunately, this bill “died” in the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities during the 111th Congress, and thus far in the new 112th congress, it has not been reintroduced. In today’s federal budget climate, it’s hard to imagine this new congress being too excited about bolstering our nation’s public education, in even the small step the SUCCESS Act was designed to achieve. That’s a shame, you have to admit.

Camp Friends

For years now, we’ve been talking about the benefits of a camp experience for children, the incredible rewards that stick with them long after the active fun of camp life fades back to the demands of home and school. We talked about the meaningful transformation kids experience, personally, socially, intellectually and physically. In so many ways, camp is educational, in the best sense of the word. It’s an experience that children can draw upon later in life as they encounter new challenges, meet new people, and branch out beyond the familiar. Camp is great for kids, in truly important ways.

If you ask the girls at Rockbrook why they love camp so much, they won’t hesitate to explain that it’s the people, their friends that make it so important. There’s no doubt about it; at camp you make your very best friends. There’s time to relax and plenty of super fun things to do, so it’s easy to make friends.

In addition to the real benefit of learning how to make friends, it’s also true that simply having these “camp friends” can be something valuable later in life. Campers share so much together and get to know each other so well, they naturally grow very close, and the camp becomes a close-knit community of supportive people. Years later, for example when they are looking for a job, or getting married, or moving to a new town, these connections (this “social capital”) can really make a difference. Camp friends are there for you!