Our Learnings

As an organization we are always learning, growing, and making improvements. Everything we do is framed within a continuous improvement cycle, which consists of multiple phases that are repeated year after year. First, we prepare to assess our programs and youth outcomes. Then, we conduct our assessment plans and collect data. Next, we identify areas where we are successful and determine opportunities for improvement. The opportunities for improvement are where we can make the greatest change and implement improvement plans to enhance the youth experience. Everything we do is based on intentional reflection, planning, and improvement.

Program quality is at the centre of what we do, and we now have multiple seasons of data to reflect on, both during our summer and year-round programs. Assessments were completed by by both internal staff and external visitors, and ranged from 15 minutes to multiple days, including during both structured activities and unstructured social time. This provided a holistic understanding of the quality of campers’ experiences at Tims Camps. After each season, we determine our program quality score, create a goal score for the upcoming season, and determine a targeted focus area for improvements. Here’s how we’ve been doing:

Between summers 2022 and 2023, we invested more in supporting our staff to work with youth by introducing additional program quality focused trainings; bringing in external trainers focused on behaviour management, mental and emotional health, and wellbeing; and providing physical resource guides. We’ve begun to investigate characteristics associated with challenging camp experiences and reflected on how we can attend to these for greater success for campers. For example, in summer 2022 we had one registered social worker at most of our camp locations and in 2023, we established a ratio of one social worker for every 75 campers.

Reflecting on the process of program quality assessments, engaging more voices and perspectives is key for us and will allow for a well-rounded view of how we create a high-quality experience for youth. Our goal is to connect and engage with staff in different roles across the organization, youth in all of our programs, and other stakeholders (e.g., teachers, partnership organizations) to provide insights into program quality. We are also engaging youth in creative camp-based activities to share their views on what makes a high-quality camp program. Sourcing different perspectives of the quality of our programs will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of what we do well and how we can improve.​

We are committed to continuing to measure outcomes with campers in our summer and year-round programs. The way we measure outcomes is evolving to best suit campers' needs and provide usable, impactful data. We learned that previous evidence-based measures of the 5Cs, although scientifically rigorous, were a burden for youth participants to complete. We have since changed our approach to measuring the 5Cs to remain consistent with TIMpact365, be easier for participants to complete, and still provide data that will support program improvements. The same measurement approach will be used for summer program and year-round outcome assessment. Our goal is for 95% of youth to report growth in the 5Cs during their time at camp.

As we learned that participants’ general wellbeing increases after camp, but might not be sustained into the school year, our youth engagement efforts will focus on connecting with campers, transferring and sustaining wellbeing into home settings. This will impact the supports and ongoing outreach that we provide throughout the school year. For example, we will provide virtual workshops focused on building and maintaining community (e.g., games nights), mindfulness, journalling, and supporting yourself and peers during challenging times.

Short-term impact is measured through the Big 3 components of self, community, and future. Summer campers responded to these questions once before and once after the camp experience to determine the impact of camp programs. Data from 2022 and 2023 indicated that the programs positively impacted youth in all three categories, however it was not a statistically significant increase for “future”.

We have learned that the activities we offered as part of “future” related programming were not fully hitting the mark. Our activities asked participants to think about their future and what it could look like, but we were not necessarily helping youth recognize that the skills they were building during camp would help them be successful in the future. Based on this learning, we are updating current activities and introducing new ones to highlight important life skills (e.g., financial management, healthy habits) and help campers recognize how these skills will be useful in their future. Our goal is that with these modifications, scores related to “future” will show statistically significant increases from pre- to post-camp measures.

Long-Term

Long-term impact was measured with alumni campers in April and May of 2022. Three key takeaways were determined:

1. Tims Camps was critical to the development of skills that remain important in former campers‘ lives today.
2. Greater years of camp = greater impact.
3. Tims Camps opens doors/creates opportunities for education and employment.

Our goal is to continue to foster relationships with our alumni. Ongoing communication with alumni will allow us to stay in touch, keep updated contact information on file, and connect again in a few years to continue to understand the long-term impact of camp. With this in mind, we are focused on how to best cultivate a meaningful alumni network.