When camp leaders think about sexual abuse prevention, the conversation often starts with hiring staff. Background checks. References. Training before the program year begins.
Those steps matter. Our risk control team has reviewed hundreds of camp safety programs over the years, and strong screening is always part of the picture. Yet many of the most important safeguards show up later in how policies are applied, monitored and supported throughout the season. Camp leaders must bridge those gaps throughout the year, not just during onboarding.
Seasonal staffing risks at camps
The average sleepaway camp has between 41 and 50 seasonal staff members, resulting in high turnover or seasoned staff moving between programs.
As a result, camps are often operating with largely new teams each season, undergoing onboarding and training alongside a wide range of other learnings like program schedules and daily responsibilities. This makes it more difficult to sustain consistency, which is why it’s important to provide ongoing reinforcement around sexual abuse recognition and prevention.
Abuse risk lives in the “in-between moments”
The highest-risk situations tend to happen in what is referred to as the “in-between moments.” They’re not on a daily schedule or program plan, but include:
- Transitions between scheduled activities, the five minutes when groups are moving between locations and staff coverage is temporarily stretched.
- Staff shift changes or break periods, when supervision responsibility is being handed off.
- Mealtimes and related movement, including travel to and from dining areas and regrouping.
- End-of-day routines, when formal programming concludes and supervision structures wind down.
These are the moments where one-on-one interactions are most likely and where boundaries can erode — both in peer-to-peer and staff-to-youth settings.
That’s why it’s important to regularly assess where those moments exist within your organization. Leaders should map out a typical day and identify transitions, downtime and spaces where supervision is less defined. From there, formalize expectations:
Who is supervising?
How will visibility be maintained?
What should staff do if a situation feels unclear?
Effective organizations apply supervision standards consistently, even during downtime. That includes clearly defined staff-to-youth ratios and age-appropriate oversight. A good rule of thumb: Follow the two-adult rule and maintain line-of-sight expectations.
Supervise the adults, not just the youth
There’s often a heavy focus on supervising children with very little oversight of the adults responsible for them, especially seasonal or volunteer staff newer to the organization.
Make adult supervision visible. Identify who is in charge in real time. Give staff a clear leader to turn to when they are unsure how to handle a situation. In many camps, this might be the director, unit leader, head counselor or safety officer.
When supervision of adults is consistent, staff are more likely to identify grooming behaviors earlier.
Response plans — and coverage — should prioritize the victim
No prevention program is complete without a clear response system. As a camp, it’s important that your response plans prioritize the safety and well-being of victims, while outlining reporting standards, including:
Courtesy of Sarah Veader
Sarah Veader
- Immediate steps to ensure youth are safe.
- Procedures for escalating and investigating the incident.
- Clear pathways for external reporting to local law enforcement.
- Documentation of the concern.
- Steps for prioritizing the well-being and protection of any youth involved.
This is also where insurance coverage becomes critical. Insurance isn’t a substitute for prevention, but it is important for helping protect victims and your organization, with many insurers also providing safety and crisis response resources to help with your prevention and response efforts.
The conversation shouldn’t stop at onboarding. Prevention requires ongoing attention. Consider a few quick ways to re-engage staff, including:
- Scenario trainings.
- Monthly micro-reminders.
- Updates when staffing or programming changes.
Another good rule of thumb is to revisit your prevention policies annually, using assessment tools to identify gaps and track improvement over time. This keeps prevention from becoming a static document and reinforces that safety is a shared responsibility.
A mindset shift to protect youth
If there’s one shift I’d encourage, it’s this: Safety and training don’t end once staff are hired.
Look within your organization and consider where you can make a difference. Prevention lives in the unscheduled moments — and in the systems that support staff, protect youth and allow your organization to respond effectively when concerns arise.
When you address those moments, you create a safer environment for youth.
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Sarah Veader is the assistant vice president of risk control at Church Mutual Insurance Company, S.I. Church Mutual is the nation’s leading insurer of religious organizations and a provider for nonprofits, schools and camps.
