Education and Professional Development

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

Special Initiatives

Cultural Day Initiative

Homeless Campership Fund

Teen Leadership Institute

Professional Development

Our Impact

The Summer Fund’s program broke financial barriers to enable 816 new individuals to visit the Museum exhibit halls. Through the cultural program, we have the opportunity to enhance existing relationships and begin new ones with community-based organizations and with colleagues from other cultural organizations.

— Museum of Science

Random Quote

The Summer Fund Cultural Day program allows Boston Children’s Museum to fulfill its mission of reaching out to underserved populations of children in the greater Boston area. Without this program, many of these children would never have the opportunity to attend the Museum and to learn and grow from the educational opportunities we offer.

— Boston Children’s Museum