Public awareness project update.

ACA has begun its first-ever public awareness project. The goal of the project is to increase the number of children who are able to experience camp. The current American Camping Foundation Endowment Campaign is funding the public awareness project.

ACA's Strategic Position

In order to increase the number of children who can experience camp, camp must be considered vital, not discretionary. To be considered vital we must emphasize our child and youth development outcomes, in addition to our recreation methodology. Also, we must position the camp experience in relation to the benefits sought by parents and other groups who finance camp experiences.

The 12-member visionary task force of the public awareness project established the above strategic position at its meeting in September. In order to reach our goal of increasing the number of children who can experience camp, different actions will be required from multitudes of funders of the camp experience -- including parents. To change behavior requires recognition of a problem and implementation of an acceptable solution.

The problem is now clearly defined and accepted by policy makers and the general public: All children are now at risk and we can no longer count on what was once the "typical" developmental structure of family, community, and school to supply the core developmental needs of children. The time is ripe for those who have a solution to step forward and present their case. Camp is a solution that has been meeting the developmental needs of children for nearly 150 years.

What is left is effective communications. The only way to get our message heard is to shape it into a form that can be understood by the intended receiver -- parents. We must speak about the same issues using the same language from the same recognized voices (authorities).

Ideas Develop

In November a subgroup of the task force met in New York City with communications expert Laurel Cutler of Foote, Cone, and Belding. This discussion helped the group continue to collect and evaluate ideas about how we might best reach our goal, with the recognition that we currently have only enough money to "seed a solution."

The ACA national board of directors at its meeting later that month accepted a broadly outlined proposal presented by Chuck Ackenbom, visionary task force chair, and Ann Woods, public relations liaison and task force member. The outline covered gaining media exposure, providing materials to camp directors, gaining funding for camperships, and expanding our funding base to maintain momentum. The board also charged the budget and finance committee with the responsibility for continuing budgetary support of the project through 1999.

Plans To Be Finalized 

Proposals from three national public relations firms have been reviewed. Face-to-face meetings have been scheduled in early February with two firms in Washington, D.C. At a meeting in Toronto during the International Camping Congress, the visionary task force will make a final decision on the public awareness project's approach and the public relations firm that will assist with the project.