June Rusche Hamrah Camp for All Year One of a Three Year Evaluation Grant uri icon

abstract

  • Camp For All (CFA) is a fully-accessible facility that features indoor and outdoor experiential activities for youth with special needs. CFA serves agencies that provide summer opportunities for youth by providing recreation, educational and therapeutic programs designed to enhance self-esteem, self-awareness, and independence. This proposal is meant to outline a strategy whereby Camp For All can be evaluated to understand the key processes that occur during camp and how camp experiences impact the lives of children and youth who attend the various summer sessions. The purpose of this evaluation is to understand to what extent youth experience changes in short-term outcomes around social and emotional functioning and behaviors related to self-care and the development of a leisure repertoire. The evaluation team sought to use established and tested scales that captured the supports and opportunities offered through camp, as well as the proximal and distal outcomes associated with participation in camp. This year's camp activities included the following 1) Pre-test - performed prior to camp to assess demographic information, participation in leisure activities, parent support, and baseline data on outcomes; 2) Post-test - performed following camp to examine changes in outcomes occurred following camp and understand to what extent supports and opportunities were perceived to exist in camp; and 3) Follow-up - performed four to six months following camp to examine how well changes in outcomes persisted. Many of these activities occurred over the period from June 2008 through August 2008. Data analysis and the distribution and collection of follow-up questionnaires occurred from August 2008-January 2009. The subcontract in question is an agreement between Texas A&M University and East Carolina to secure the services of Clifton Watts, as an evaluation consultant for the project. In the past, Dr. Watts functioned as the principal investigator, and he will continue to oversee the implementation of the study design, analysis of data and interpretation of findings. He is directly supervising a research assistant to this project. Dr. Watts will work with Dr. Peter Witt of Texas A&M to develop a formal report for the project over the period of the subcontract period.

date/time interval

  • April 2008 - March 2009