As L.A.'s Only Officially Recognized Accredited Summer Beach Camp, You Can Rest Easy Knowing Aloha Sets the Standard for Protecting Your Child's Safety and Ensuring Their Fun With a  100% Safety Record and Quality Guarantee.

Summer 2023

Aloha Friends,

My name is Eric Naftulin and I am the owner and director of Aloha Beach Camp Summer Camp and an Ambassador for the American Camp Association where I interpret the value of the camp experience for the public and community based groups.

Summer's almost here, so I wanted to spend a moment talking about camp accreditation today and the importance of choosing an accredited camp. This way you can feel more confident you're picking a safe, quality camp program.

Aloha Beach Camp Summer Camp Director Eric Naftulin

Accredited camps set the benchmark for excellence in the summer camp field, and Aloha Beach Camp's the only accredited camp of its kind in the L.A. area. So if you're considering a beach camp experience for your child and safety and quality are important to you, we hope you'll consider our program this summer.

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What's an Accredited Summer Camp?

Accredited camps set the standard for quality, safety, and fun compared to other camps. By choosing an accredited camp, you get peace of mind knowing you've picked a program that meets or exceeds up to 300 health, safety, quality, and other industry-accepted and government-recognized best-practice guidelines identified by the American Camp Association as key components to running a safe, trusted, above-board camp operation. We made the decision long ago to become accredited and held to account by an independent 3rd party so you, as a concerned parent, could have the peace of mind knowing Aloha sets the standard for safety, quality, and running an above-board program.

When you choose an American Camp Association accredited camp, you can be confident knowing you're picking a camp with recognized level of authority achieved by only a select number of camps in the world. For example, in the United States alone, there's over 12,000 summer camps for kids and teens but only 2,400 have earned accreditation.

How do Camps Become Accredited?

To achieve and maintain accreditation, Aloha Beach Camp voluntarily submits to regular live, ongoing, 3rd party audits and inspections by American Camp Association officials to prove our compliance with over 300 standards it considers paramount to safe, quality camp programming and operation.

The audits take place during the camp season in our office and in the field where they observe our program in action. Some of the standards we comply with relate to:

• Health and safety of campers and staff
• Program and activity quality and execution
• Counselor and staff hiring and training practices
• Camper-to-staff supervision ratios
• Transportation safety
• Anti-bullying policies and procedures
• Emergency management procedures
• Group dynamics and conflict resolution techniques
• Current industry research and youth development trends
• 100's of additional standards related to key aspects of a top-quality summer day camp operation

• Camper-to-staff ratios and supervision
• Staff hiring and training practices
• Program and activity planning and execution
• Business administration
• Transportation
• Emergency management
• Much more

Choosing a summer camp which has earned accreditation from the American Camp Association is a parent's best guarantee they've chosen a camp that meets the highest standards of safety and quality in the summer camp industry.

Accredited Camps

What's the Risk of Choosing an Unaccredited Camp?

If the camp you're considering isn't accredited, the primary issue becomes whether it's adhering to certain safety, quality, and industry-accepted best practice guidelines. With no 3rd party "watchdog" ensuring its compliance, you just never know.

That's why we always advise viewing unaccredited programs with a degree of caution until you've have a chance to evaluate their programs, staff, and reputation and you're satisfied with the results.

But even if you doubts as to their legitimacy and credibility, it's important to note unaccredited camps aren't necessarily "bad" camps and may not have lower quality standards just because they're unaccredited.

The process of becoming an accredited camp can be long, stressful, time-consuming, and extremely difficult for camps to achieve, so there may be any number of reasons why a given program is not accredited.

Maybe the camp director doesn't care enough to put in the time to go through the process. Maybe they don't even know camp accreditation exists. Maybe they recently went through their accreditation audit and waiting for results.

If you have any doubt, we highly urge all parents to verify the accreditation status of any camp via the American Camp Association's find a camp tool or calling them at 1-800-428-CAMP. They'll confirm whether the camp you're considering is accredited so you can make an informed decision as to if the program's right for you.

Is the Risk Worth It?

As mentioned above, sending your child to a summer camp that hasn't achieved accreditation doesn't necessarily mean the program lacks quality compared to accredited camps. But accredited programs offer an added layer of assurance giving you peace of mind they've covered all their "t's" and dotted all their "i's."  Accredited programs generally leave no stoned upturned when it comes to protecting your child's health and safety at camp.

Only you can decide if picking a camp that isn't accredited is worth the risk. It's a personal choice, but everything else equal, we'd always suggest choosing an accredited camp program.