The Summer Fund supports our grantees by providing resources, trainings and workshops created to enrich program curricula and improve professional competencies for camp leadership and staff.  New initiatives are designed to respond to emerging trends in the field by providing educational and professional development opportunities. Our initiatives vary each year depending on current needs that emerge in the summer program field.

Our current initiatives include:

• A collaborative effort with the American Camping Association (ACA) to evaluate Summer Fund camps, measure existing quality standards against ACA standards, and establish baseline quality criteria for summer camps as well as an ongoing evaluation method to ensure that standards are maintained

• In partnership with the United Way and Bostnet, the implementation of a summer learning strategy to help Summer Fund camps stem summer learning loss through instructional and experiential academic methods that fit within a recreational camp program model

• An innovative summer leadership program developed in partnership with Hale Reservation, designed to provide teen camp counselors with job readiness training, more effective camp counselor skills, and more support from camp leadership staff