Motivated by a desire to better understand and mold children’s experiences at Dragonfly Forest, we have surveyed all campers and their parents to measure the impact of Dragonfly Forest on their lives, from the 2006 camp season through our 2011 season (6 Camp Seasons – over 1,750 Campers).

We do this because, while we provide what looks like a traditional camp experience to our participants, we actually are employing an Intentional Programming Model.  This model is based on the assumption that all camp activities can lead to learning and growth.  

Experiences at camp are as diverse as the children who attend.   The results of this six year study provide scientific evidence that Dragonfly Forest – a unique educational institution – is a positive force in youth development in the following ways:

·         Children become more confident and experience increased self-esteem

·         Children develop more social skills that help them to make new friends

·         Children grow more independent and show more leadership qualities

·         Children become more adventurous and willing to try new things

·         Children learn new ways to care for themselves and their illness/disorder

Since 2008, we have also interviewed parents nine months after camp to find out if they still see positive changes in their child’s behavior, just as they did right after their camper returned home from camp.  In the three years, we have seen that a majority of the positive results have lasted. - as we describe below.

In 2010, we moved away from our own Outcomes Study to one that was developed by the American Camp Association (ACA).  The ACA Youth Outcomes Battery (ACA-YOB) provides camps and other youth programs with measures that focus on eight common youth outcomes. The statistically tested scales are age-appropriate tools that can be individualized to a camp, afterschool program, or other youth program. While the battery was designed with the camp setting in mind (e.g., nature-based context, residential nature, small group living, youth focused) the measures are focused on strong youth development outcomes that are not predicated on particular settings.

The Specific Youth Outcomes that Dragonfly Forest measures are the following:

• Friendship Skills (i.e., make friends and maintain relationships)
• Independence (i.e., rely less on adults and other people for solving problems and for their day-to-day activities)
• Teamwork (i.e., become more effective when working in groups of their peers)
• Perceived Competence (i.e., believe that they can be successful in the things they do)
• Interest in Exploration (i.e., be more curious, inquisitive, eager to learn new things)
• Responsibility (i.e., learn to be accountable for their own actions and mistakes)

We also added our own Medical outcome which is designed to measure if a camper learns to better manage their disease/disorder.

Our outcome study was administered in four parts based on best practices from the ACA and our knowledge of Dragonfly campers, their program, and their ability to answer study questions. These four parts and the overall results for 2011 are shown below:

Children with Autism and Chromosome 22Q Deletion – Summer Camp

Since many of the children involved in this part of our program have a very difficult time communicating effectively, we have chosen to present the study to their parents to get them to identify for us what they saw as a change in their camper after the camp experience.  Below is a listing of outcomes rated from highest to lowest.   It should be noted that the lowest rating still includes some learning of that outcome area, none of the outcomes listed show that the participants did not learn anything while a participant in our program.

Scoring Method:1 – Didn’t Learn, 2 – Not Sure, 3 – Learned a Little, 4 – Learned a Lot

Outcome Categories Measured: PC - Perceived Competency, IE - Interest in Exploration, FR - Friendship, T - Teamwork, I - Independence, FCB - Family Citizenship (not studied in all session at Dragonfly Forest),    R - Responsibility

Children with Sickle Cell Disease, Bleeding Disorders, or Persistent Asthma 
(Ages 6 to 9 years of age) – Summer Camp Program

82.86% (up from 78.16% in 2010) of these campers felt they learned something about the outcomes assessed in this survey (friendship, independence, teamwork, perceived competence, affinity for exploration, responsibility, and medical).  While the Camper Learning scale we use provides a composite measure of the extent to which campers believe they improved in these areas, no specific focus on any one outcome is measured due to the developmental stage of these young campers.  

Children with Sickle Cell Disease, Bleeding Disorders, or Persistent Asthma
(Ages 10+ years of age) – Summer Camp Program

The results for each of the survey areas are as follows:

• Friendship Skills – Make Friends and Maintain Relationships - 85.71% (77.14% in 2010) of campers felt that while at camp their Friendship Skills increased.
• Independence – Rely less on adults and other people for solving problems and for their day-to-day activities. - 87.5% (52.86% in 2010)of campers felt that while at camp their level of Independence increased.  It is interesting to note that when the parents were surveyed, 69.6% of parents saw an increase in the level of independence in their campers.
• Teamwork – become more effective when working in groups of their peers - 84.82% (84.29% in 2010) of campers felt that while at camp they increased their ability to work with groups of their peers.
• Perceived Competence – believe that they can be successful in the things they do - 83.93% (81.43% in 2010) of campers felt that while at camp they learned to be more successful in the things they do.
• Interest in Exploration – be more curious, inquisitive, eager to learn new things - 89.29% (85.71% in 2010) of campers felt that since coming to camp their interest in exploring new things has increased.
• Responsibility – learn to be accountable for the own actions and mistakes - 83.93% (84.29% in 2010) of campers felt that while at camp their level of Responsibility increased.
• Medical – learn to be able to live with their disease and stay healthy - 74.11% (70% in 2010) of campers felt that while at camp they increased their medical knowledge and ability to stay healthy.
• Problem Solving Confidence - learn to feel more confident in their problem-solving capabilities - 80.36% (not measured in 2010) of campers felt that while at camp they increased their problem-solving capabilities.
• Camp Connectedness - do campers feel welcomed and supported at camp - 89.29% (not measured in 2010) of campers felt that while at camp they increased their camp connectedness (felt welcomed and supported at camp). 

Children with Autism (Ages 7 to 14 years of age) – After-School / Spectrum Program

The After School Program Outcome study is still being developed.   We are working to build a similar model that we use for our summer camp program for the after-school program.  To date we have been able to develop the following results from the initial outcome program that is under development.

Friendship Skills– Make Friends and Maintain Relationships

• 100% of participants felt “I have good FRIENDSHIP SKILLS” was at least a little true.
• 62.5% of participants felt “I have good FRIENDSHIP SKILLS” was at least a somewhat true

Independence– Rely less on adults and other people for solving problem and for their day-to-day activities.

• 87.5% of participants felt “I have good INDEPENCE SKILLS” was at least a little true.
• 62.5% of participants felt “I have good INDEPENCE SKILLS” was at least a somewhat true.

Teamwork– become more effective when working in groups of their peers

• 87.5% of participants felt “I have good TEAMWORK SKILLS” was at least a little true.
• 75 % of participants felt “I have good TEAMWORK SKILLS” was at least a somewhat true.

Do the Results Continue Past the End of Camp?

All of the above results are positive, especially if the kids who participate in our program can retain the learning.  For the 2008 thru 2011 seasons, we surveyed parents nine months after camp ended to see if the lessons learned were still visible in their kids at various time points (shown below), and found that a majority of parents were still seeing positive changes. 

The following are the key lessons parents saw their children learn at camp, maintained nine months later:

• Increased Confidence – 79.0%
• Increased Independence – 73.9%
• Ability to Get Along with Peers – 73.9%
• Teamwork – 72.3%
• Willingness to Take More Responsibility – 64.7%
• Better Deal with Challenging Situations – 60.5%

The results presented in this report are extremely encouraging and validate our programs’ purpose.  Understanding the areas where Dragonfly Forest contributes to positive youth development is an essential part of helping us to continually raise the bar in these areas and build further capacity.  We appreciate more than ever how the Dragonfly Forest experience nurtures substantial growth in our campers. We will continue to study the results of our program as we believe that the process of evidence-based program enhancement is critical to our ongoing role in assisting young people’s journey to becoming productive adults.