Philosophy &
Safety at Camp
The concept of Camp Adventure
Dear parents,
We are very happy that you want us to take care of the sweetest and the best of your life. Be sure: we will protect them as if they were our own child and will do everything we can to guarantee the greatest possible safety. We would like to share our philosophy and a piece of our safety concept with you. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Community
What is most important for us at camp is the community. We want everyone – participants, teamers and camp directors, no matter from which country or what culture – to have an unforgettable time and every single one of us helps to reach this goal.
Responsibility
We want everyone to help shape the daily life at camp. Besides playing this of course also includes social coexistence. Together with us your children keep the camp clean. This means cleaning the dishes and wiping the tables after a meals, as well as keeping the camp and sanitary facilities clean and tidying up the tents and huts together. All this of course, in a manner appropriate to the age of your children.
This is how we, in shared responsibility, make everybody feel comfortable.
Internationality
At camp new friendships arise even though some campers live thousands of kilometers apart. Our experienced campers immediately include newcomers because this is what they love camp for – they come to make new friends and meet their fellow camp mates again. After our camp season many parents tell us about mutual visits – some went to France, Spain or Canada. They also tell us about the increased motivation of their children to pay a little more attention to the language lessons at school so conversations at camp next summer become easier.
Log off, get outside
We want all campers to have a relaxed holiday. Mobile phones are especially counterproductive to reach this goal. Therefore, our camps are mobile-free zones and we would like your children to hand over their phones and all other electronic devices to our teamers on the day of arrival so they can really relax. This also means that your children cannot be reached by phone outside the daily telephone hour which is after lunch.
No power to drugs
For legal reasons, as a result of our cooperation with the organization „No power to drugs“ and by our conviction that drugs don’t belong into the hands of children and young adults, it is strictly forbidden for all campers to possess or consume any kind of drugs including cigarettes and alcoholic drinks. Non-compliance with this rule will lead to the suspension from camp or even criminal charges. It is our belief that with all our activities and the great atmosphere at camp, we offer much better alternatives anyway!
Background Check
Every counselor, chef, teamer or helper that enters our camps has to be registrated, complete a background check, as well as have references. That's why parents are only allowed on the camp site on the day of arrival and departure and not during the week. We want to make sure that we have checked and know every adult who is with us at camp.
Education
Each counselor must complete an almost two-week training course with us, from early in the morning until late in the evening includes so many lessons that the number of hours even corresponds to the basic study in educational sciences. Here we focus on the areas of safety, accident prevention, child psychology and needs as well as the various safety aspects in the field of experiential education.
Crisis Intervention
If something should happen, it is not only important to provide first aid for the affected person, but also to care for the other children and adolescents. We have a specially trained team for crisis intervention, which then provides immediate care and can thus prevent possible traumatisation due to the experience.
Nightwatch
All our camps are also supervised at night by the counselors/teamers. On the one hand we want to prevent visitors from coming to the site - which has not happened until today - and on the other hand we want to be there for the children if they wake up at night and get homesick or have to go to the toilet. The nightwatch patrols the area and is otherwise reachable at a central place for the children. Some of our locations - e.g. the headquarters in Walsrode - are also video-monitored and fenced in.
Caregiver Ratio
No safety without sufficient staff! We are the leaders in Germany with our great caregiver to participant ratio. There are no camps that have a ratio worse than 1:6-1:8, which means that one caregiver is responsible for a maximum of 6-8 children. In the junior camps we also use our CIT (Counselor in Training), so that we often reach a ratio of only 1:4. We know that this ratio can seem exaggerated, but we want to guarantee the highest possible safety and we firmly believe that this is exactly what our high level of caregiver commitment leads to.
Cooperation
Cooperation with the independent representative for questions of sexual child abuse via our umbrella organisation Reisenetz e.V.: Camp Adventure was one of the first tour operators for children and young people to develop a protection concept that prevents sexual abuse among children and young people. This concept is considered important by many other tour operators today, also due to our personal commitment with various associations and in professional circles. Of course, the background check and the "6-eyes principle", which states that a child must never be alone with a caregiver, is also an essential part of our protection concept. However, the most important thing is to create an "open system" in which everyone knows that sexual abuse should not be a taboo subject; that simple instruments such as a grievance box and feedback systems can immediately address grievances and that they do not have to be denied.
Quality
As a member of the quality committee of the professional association for children and youth travel "Reisenetz", our managing director Jan Vieth is responsible for further developing and checking the quality guidelines of the entire industry. As Germany's ambassador to the ICF, he is also kept up to date on improvements in camp and training quality worldwide and adapts these as quickly as possible to our own camps.
Accessibility
Of course, all parents receive a phone number from us, which allows them to reach us 24 hours a day in case of an emergency. If an emergency occurs at your home, you can inform us immediately and we can decide together how, when and whether to inform your child.
In case of emergency
Every caregiver has a valid first aid certificate and can help if necessary. However, if a doctor or hospital visit is required, we will take care of this.
We hope to have helped you with this overview. For further information you can call us at +49 (0) 40 8080 576 00.