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Jan. 13, 2012
Trying to expand camping
New study revisits some of the conclusions of eight years ago.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
According to a study published last spring by the Avi Chai Foundation, from 2000-2008, “[s]everal forces ignited interest and activity in Jewish summer camp.... The resultant changes can be seen in four areas: new initiatives, the new reality of camps, new programming and emerging target groups.”
As its title indicates, the study, Limud by the Lake Revisited: Growth and Change at Jewish Summer Camp, written by Dr. Amy L. Sales, Nicole Samuel and Matthew Boxer of the Cohen Centre for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, is a follow-up to 2002’s Limud by the Lake: Fulfilling the Potential of Jewish Summer Camps (which also resulted in the 2004 book by Sales and Dr. Leonard Saxe called “How Goodly Are Thy Tents”: Summer Camps as Jewish Socializing Experiences).
In Limud by the Lake Revisited, the authors attribute the many positive changes in camp programming to “the emergence of FJC [Foundation for Jewish Camp], with its new chief executive officer, Jerry Silverman, and his vision to ‘push the field into the 21st century’; and the support of the Avi Chai Foundation and Harold Grinspoon Foundation. As these forces aligned, a number of other funders, foundations and federations joined in serious support of Jewish summer camp.”
The original study encompassed an examination of 18 Jewish camps during the summer of 2000. The seven recommendations from that research were to expand the reach of Jewish camping, make camp a model of Jewish education, prepare directors to enhance Jewish camp life, focus on Jewish staff as a target group, bring more Jewish counselors, provide training and support for counselors to advance on their personal Jewish journeys and flourish in their work as Jewish role models, and conduct research in the field of Jewish camping and ground its development in reliable information.
The new study “is based on field observations at 22 Jewish overnight camps selected to represent different types of camps in three regions of the country.... Fourteen of these camps took part in the original study. Four were added to round out our sample and three other camps, new on the landscape, were added so that we might learn how start-up camps think about and enact their Jewish purposes. For the purposes of contrast, one for-profit private camp was added to this portion of the study only.”
There were a few other aspects of the research, including two staff surveys, a survey of 423 families with a camp-age child who had never been to a Jewish overnight camp, and a survey of more than 4,000 families who had children at one of the camps under study, which was administered in the spring 2009 and had a response rate of 60 percent. About the kids attending the camps being studied, the authors make numerous observations:
• 55 percent of the campers at the coed camps were girls, 45 percent were boys,
• 57 percent of the children in the study were in grades 5-8, 30 percent in grades 9-12 and 13 percent in kindergarten through Grade 4,
• approximately 13 percent of the campers lived in single-parent households,
• about 13 percent of the sample, or almost 500 campers, were linguistic minorities, mostly Hebrew, Spanish or Russian speakers,
• some 43 percent of the campers were being raised Conservative, 27 percent Reform, four percent Reconstructionist, 21 percent secular and one percent in another religion; four percent reported that the child was being raised Orthodox, even though no Orthodox camps participated in the family survey,
• overall, 14 percent were the children of intermarriage, with the range highest in the west (18 percent) and at the community camps (23 percent) and lowest in the northeast (nine percent) and in the Zionist camps (eight percent),
• some 31 percent of the campers were first-timers in summer 2008, with 69 percent being returning campers, and
• 15 percent had attended another Jewish overnight camp other than the one they were attending in 2008.
The researchers acknowledge, “In many regards, the campers in our study are Jewish ‘elites.’ This is not to say all of the campers are elites; however, it is notable that the campers and families in our sample are relatively educated and affiliated as compared with the general Jewish population. Much of this variation is accounted for by the number of movement camps in the study.” (The study documents that, “Camp families are largely an affiliated group: overall, 91 percent are members of a congregation.”)
In addition to providing a “portrait of the children who attend the Jewish summer camps” in the study, Limud by the Lake Revisited builds on its previous recommendations.
“The future requires a strong vision for the field of Jewish summer camp, one that can inspire its planning and actions in the next eight years and help sustain the remarkable dynamism of the past eight years,” write the study’s authors. “Fulfilling the vision calls for continued efforts to expand the reach of camp, support innovation, raise the level of professionalization, develop camp’s full potential to create powerful Jewish life and learning, and make the most of camp’s greatest asset – its people.”
Noting that, “despite significant progress, only a small fraction of Jewish youth has a Jewish summer camp experience,” the study suggests some ways of expanding the reach of camp, including retooling marketing and recruitment, with “more experimentation ... in the use of social media, community organizing, strategic partnerships with schools ... and other local organizations, use of alumni networks, and other vehicles for stimulating interest in the Jewish camps”; reducing the cost to campers of attending through, among other things, building endowments, creating new pricing structures and more efficiencies in operations; and increasing the opportunities for teens, who currently have a lower retention rate than younger age groups; and expanding services for campers with special needs.
While applauding some of the initiatives – such as incubator camps and incentive programs – that have allowed camps to grow over the eight years between studies, Limud by the Lake Revisited calls for efforts to “maintain momentum in the field.” The authors point to a need to “support capacity building for camps,” “make the most of evaluation research on innovation” and “pay special attention to the start-up camps.” Remarking that “the rule of thumb in venture capital is that only 10 percent of new businesses last a decade,” the study states, “Consultation, mentoring, communities of practice, and other forms of support can help the start-up camps take advantage of the opportunities of newness while avoiding the pitfalls of new ventures.”
Limud by the Lake Revisited would like to see the level of professionalization raised: “In 2000, our recommendations for the training of camp directors focused singularly on preparing them to enhance Jewish life at their camps. Advances in the field now highlight the critical need for advanced training in executive leadership and management.
“Camp directors need to match the skills and expertise of top leadership in the nonprofit world. The list is lengthy and includes, among other requirements, the ability to inspire with vision; to identify, recruit, train and motivate an excellent board of directors (or camp committee) and a cadre of volunteer leaders; to raise funds; to build and work effectively with a top-notch management team. The great leaders are not mired in everyday operations but are able to think intelligently about the mission of the camp – its role in Jewish education; its impact on child, teen and young adult development; its contribution to Jewish life, and so on. These skills and habits of thought cannot be learned at a weekend conference.”
In addition to recommending that camps’ Judaic programming be strengthened and that summer camp be brought “to a central place in the Jewish educational system,” Limud by the Lake Revisited suggests that camp be used as a “laboratory for Jewish peoplehood.”
“Diversity at camp – the mix of American, Israeli and international staff and the inclusion of campers from varied backgrounds – is one of camp’s great assets,” write the study’s authors. “To take full advantage of this asset, however, the camps must recognize it as such and incorporate the value of Klal Yisrael into their culture and program.” Camps can do this by intentionally recruiting and programming for diversity, and by creating a forum for raising the level of shlichut, states the report.
“Israelis play a very important role at camp, not only by their contribution to Jewish, Zionist and Israel education, but also by their mere participation in the camp community,” according to Limud by the Lake Revisited. “At the same time, we have seen the impact that camp has on the Israelis themselves. In recent years, camp directors have become more involved in the recruitment of Israeli staff, traveling to Israel to meet with prospective shlichim. They now need to become more involved in the preparation of Israeli staff for their summer at camp. Training and preparation – on the part of both the camps and the Jewish Agency [for Israel] – could be improved if camp and JAFI professionals came together to learn from one another about what is needed and share ideas for meeting those needs.”
The study concludes, “Each summer is an opportunity for camps to influence the Jewish life trajectory of the children, teens and young adults who form the camp community. Job #1 for camps, therefore, is assuring that camp is fun and that friendships flourish. The emphasis on camp operations and programs must not distract leadership from this fundamental responsibility.
“As well, camps must steer a clear course through the new reality of customer demands, ‘helicopter parents,’ security concerns and omnipresent technology. They must understand that they are, in fact, the antidote to these forces. They offer children and teens the opportunity to be part of a real (not virtual) community – a community dedicated to fun, attentive to personal growth and development, and committed to Judaism and Jewish values.
“The goal for the field of Jewish summer camp is to expand the reach of camp and to continue to strengthen its role in Jewish education. The field must not only preserve the goodly tents but also enlarge and strengthen them.”
For more information on Limud by the Lake Revisited and the Avi Chai Foundation, see avichai.org.
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