Description
Does camp really work? How do we know? The Sacred Playgrounds team set out to get some answers in 2015 with the Effective Camp Project. The main question we had was whether the overnight camp experience had any common outcomes or characteristics. Through a series of interviews with campers, parents, summer staff, camp directors, and church leaders, it became clear: the Christian camp experience directly impacts the participants and their supporting networks in empirically recognizable ways. We identified common impacts among the campers, such as increased self-confidence and deeper faith.
We also found compelling evidence that these impacts often extend to families (through things such as deeper conversations and increased family prayer) and their church communities. In the years since we started the project, we have surveyed more than 24,000 summer campers and 10,000 parents at dozens of camps across the United States and Canada. We have interviewed and conducted focus groups with hundreds of participants, confirming the findings and solidifying our understanding that in order to be effective (from the perspective of the participants and their supporting networks), Christian camps must have 5 characteristics in place. Camp is: safe space, unplugged from home, participatory, relational, and faith-centered.
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