This week, I had the honor of presenting at the American Camp Association (ACA) the topic: Recognizing and Cultivating Diversity in Family Camp in beautiful San Diego, California at their annual conference.
ACA is a community of camp professionals who, for nearly 100 years, have joined together to share knowledge and experience and to ensure the quality of camp programs. ACA and Outdoor Afro have recently formed an educational partnership to help camps connect to the diverse Outdoor Afro community; and also help Outdoor Afro community members become more aware of the wide range of camp experiences available to them.
The ACA conference brought together camp professionals from around the country to learn about best practices and new innovations, and to foster collaboration to bring the camp experience to more Americans. My friend, and Outdoor Afro supporter Nina Roberts, professor at San Francisco State University, gave a fabulous presentation on strategies to help camps recruit more diverse staff.

Also nice to meet Kevin Gordon, who runs a multicultural camp called Camp Kupugani:

After the educational forums, the ACA exhibition hall featured a wide range of vendors with scores of products and program tools to successfully run camps, and there I ran into some friends and supporters of the Outdoor Afro community, each committed in their own way to make the camp experience available for everyone. Here are Camp Director Lisa Maynor’s comments:

And finally, just before leaving to return home, I was able to connect in person with the passionate CEO of the American Camp Association, Peg Smith, who generously shared her thoughts on ACA’s goals related to camp diversity:

Thank you ACA for your educational partnership and genuine commitment to diversity in the camp experience!