American Camp Association

Ever wonder how you know if a camp is going to be safe or not? Because if you look at a website, or read a brochure all camps can seem safe. So how do you know? How do you determine if a camp is going to live up to the standards that you have for your own family? One of the best ways to determine if there is a base level of safety within a camp is to find if they are affiliated with the American Camp Association (ACA). The ACA “is a community of camp professionals who, for 100 years, have joined together to share our knowledge and experience and to ensure the quality of camp programs. ACA works to preserve, promote, and improve the camp experience” for adults, families, and children. Currently ACA works with camps through many types of interactions – training, professional development, marketing, and more. The main thing ACA is known for is accreditation. Every three years camps affiliated as members of ACA go through an extensive accreditation process. There are over 350 standards to meet varying from program facilitation, program development , HR policies, site and facilities, and food service just to name a few. Now, just because a camp is accredited by ACA does not mean that there will never be an incident there – we are dealing with people, but it does mean that in the eyes of their peers and through extensive preparation the camp has taken the minimum steps to ensure safety.

This past summer was our year for accreditation. Not to brag (but I kind of am), we scored a perfect 100% at Y Camp. That is pretty amazing, but we as a camp feel that it is our responsibility as an organization serving children to make sure that we can do everything within our power to keep children safe and give them an incredible experience. So in looking for a camp for the summer, whether day or resident, make sure that one of the first things you check for is an ACA accreditation. I am happy to say that not only are we at Y Camp accredited but so are the Day Camps run out of the other YMCA’s of Greater Des Moines. For more information on ACA and what they are about feel free to see their website at http://www.acacamps.org/ .