ACA's e-Institute is an online learning center providing self-directed and group learning experiences. Designed for child and youth development audiences, from camp professionals to afterschool staff to community based program leaders, the e-Institute provides a mechanism for personal professional development and for training large groups of paid and volunteer staff. Certificates of completion are available for all courses.

Crisis – It Really Could Happen to You 2024

Join us for an interactive session on lessons learned from the 2024 ACA Camp Crisis Hotline calls. We’ll highlight key areas of concern and tough questions camps faced, based on ACA’s 2024 data. Gain insights into unexpected situations, emerging issues, and explore real case studies to understand lessons learned. You'll also receive practical guidance and key considerations for refining your policies, practices, and improving preparedness for emergencies and crises in camp operations. 

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Strategies for Cultivating a Culture of Staff Retention This Summer

Together we will cover 5 ready-to-implement strategies that will support you in retaining your staff throughout this summer and also looking ahead to next summer.

The strategies that will be discussed include creating leadership opportunities for staff, giving and receiving honest feedback, providing genuine and timely individual praise, understanding staff member expectations, and cultivating staff connections with intentionality and precision.

Presenter: Daniel Shore

CEC's: 1.0

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Empowering Camp Conversations: Mastering 'Difficult' Dialogues

This is a webinar designed to equip summer camp staff with essential skills for navigating challenging interactions. Participants delve into effective communication strategies, conflict resolution techniques, and active listening methods tailored for camp environments. Expert facilitators provide practical tools to defuse tension, foster empathy, and promote constructive dialogue, ensuring staff feel confident in addressing sensitive topics with campers, colleagues, and parents. In this webinar attendees gain valuable insights, ultimately enhancing their ability to create inclusive, nurturing camp environments.

Presenters: Chanika Perry and Lance Ozier

CEC's: 1.0

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Quality Improvement in Action

Camp is a setting where many young people feel safe to be themselves and supported to engage in new and exciting activities. This doesn’t just inherently happen, but instead must be created through intentional staff practices. The ways in which staff, activities, and culture create the environment of camp is called program quality. But how do you create high quality programs? Through initial training and continuous improvement!

This webinar will focus on two concepts, program quality and continuous improvement, and real examples of introducing them at a camp organization. Come learn about what camp program quality looks like in action and how to engage with continuous improvement in this context.