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An Accredited Camp
Our staff know that every few years we are visited by volunteers from the American Camp Association to renew our accreditation. Aside from those staff, few folks know what “accreditation” entails. Here’s a little more info:
The American Camp Association publishes a set of 229 “standards” - best practices for the summer camps that cover everything from recommended supervision ratios to food service and nursing standards.
Some standards are mandatory - they must be met in order to hold accreditation. Mandatory standards make sure no accredited camps are operating without medical supervision, clean facilities, healthy food, etc. Of the remaining standards, camps must meet more than 85% to maintain accreditation. During a visit every few summers, visitors need to observe standards in practice as wel as observe written evidence of policies and appropriate certifications. Furthermore, standards are weighted differently in the scoring process - so passing is not an easy matter to predict.
Standards areas include: Site & Food Service • Transportation • Health & Wellness • Operations & Management • Human Resources • Program Design • Aquatics • Adventure & Challenge • Specialty Programs (e.g. Horseback Riding) • Trips and Travel
Staying accredited requires a lot of work, but we think it’s worth it. For the last nine years Takodah has scored between 98 and 100% meeting or exceeding the ACA’s standards.
In this day and age, everyone with some sort summer program calls it a camp. Parents would be wise to make sure that if their child is interested in a real summer camp experience, they are looking into ACA-accredited programs!
