It’s time for the men of the camping industry to step up, step down, and better support our women colleagues in camp.
The camp industry, as a whole, participates in structural inequality. Period.
It’s easy to get caught in the trap of believing that because we create the separate, magical and intentional community at camp, that we are too insulated from the crap of the outside world. In some ways, we definitely exist in a bubble, but that is not the case when it comes to structural racism, sexism and other forms of inequality.
In this episode of First Class Counsellors, we begin a series on using our privilege, power, and knowledge of the camp industry to look at issues of inequality from the ground up - and that means starting with camp counsellors.
To start, Oliver and Matt are joined by Go Camp Pro podcast pros Ruby Compton (of Camp Code fame) and Rachel Kent (of Beyond Camp fame). Together they talk about their experiences being on both sides of sexism and how our young, male counsellors can better support their female-identifying co-workers.
Finally, Rachel and Ruby share about their involvement with the Women in Camp Summit and the work the conference and movement does to empower, educate and foster the growth of women in the camping industry.
Together, our four hosts cover:
Their counselling experience and how their genders impacted their time at camp.
From a counsellor's scope, where do / have we seen inequality between men and women at camp exist?
What can male camp counsellors do to be better allies to their female co-staff?
How the Women in Camp Summit began and what this year’s summit will look like
Why were the “allies event” and “allies fund” created for this year?
Much, much more!
Links from this episode:
The Riddle Scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddle_scale
Actor vs Ally: https://www.whiteaccomplices.org/
Women in Camp Summit Registration: http://www.acail.org/women-in-camp-summit.html
Ally Event: https://acai.wildapricot.org/event-4051965
Allies Fund: https://acai.wildapricot.org/allies/
E.G.E.L - Ever Growing Ever Learning
Games, songs, and other super-practical tips that you can use at camp next summer.
Oliver: Fairy Letters (check out the video for this one to see it)
Matt: Heads or Tails, 2 minute elimination game
Ruby: Fairy House turned into mini ninja training ground
Rachel: Eco Police - Giving campers the task of looking out for camp’s environmental impact.
Host Links
Oliver Gregan, Summer Camp Professional
Matt Honsberger, Executive Producer of Podcasting at Go Camp Pro
Rachel Kent, Coordinator, Member Risk - Girl Guides of Canada
Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors
What is First Class Counselors?
Camp Directors, this Podcast isn’t for you. It’s time to delegate! First Class Counsellors is for your counselling staff, the ones who are on the ground, playing with kids and changing lives.
Each week, we’ll cover practical and accessible tips that will level up your camp counsellor skills. These are things every counsellor should know, but that you may not have time to teach in staff training.
Our two hosts, Oliver Gregan, Summer and Families Camp Director at YMCA Camp Jewell and Matt Honsberger from Go Camp Pro are excited to be able to provide this resource to camp counsellors and up and coming staff, who they believe, have the most important job at camp.