TITLE Building Communities through Camping.

Summer camp is a type of laboratory for community living. Society's needs have changed from providing a positive summer challenge for idle youth to experimenting with the demands and rewards of working in community groups. Decentralized camping emphasizes the team decision-making approach to teach self-reliance and awareness of democratic responsibilities. Using the dynamics of group theory in staff training and in the supervision of the summer camping experience enhances teambuilding. Based on transactional analysis theory, camp groups move through four stages as they gain independence and assume responsibilities: child, adolescent, adult, and parent. Initially, leadership in the camp group is provided by the counselor but as the group matures, leadership evolves from within. The counselor's role in the maturing group is that of a guide, leading by example, using creative feedback to help campers learn from their actions, and serving as a moderator and facilitator. Several steps are proposed to ensure that campers develop positive attitudes about themselves and their future community roles: (1) structuring decision-making experiences; (2) sharing leadership activities; (3) dealing openly with issues; (4) participating with the group; (5) emphasizing the importance of all group members; (6) creating activity scaedules that allow a variety of children to excel; (7) structuring team-building exercises; (8) integrating cliques into the group; (9) approaching problem solving democratically; (10) emphasizing attempt versus outcome; and (11) interpreting the process and the task involved in activities. (ALL) ****************%********AY;AgA*A*************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document