Not Just Play

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Not Just Play

Summer Camp and the Profession of Social Work

Meryl Nadel and Susan Scher

Represents a comprehensive survey of the field that includes early social welfare history from the perspective of summer camp programs
Features first-hand accounts, archival photos, and vignettes to amplify the discussion of relevant concepts, professional issues, and contemporary concerns
Includes a chapter that counterposes an article by William Schwartz (group-work pioneer) with commentary by Lawrence Shulman (contemporary group-work scholar)

Not Just Play

Summer Camp and the Profession of Social Work

Meryl Nadel and Susan Scher

Description

Camps often provide children with a first taste of independence and freedom from the restrictions of home and school while offering a milieu full of opportunities for psychosocial development, creative interaction, and mutual aid. Though summer camps have simultaneously given current and future social workers educational, practice, research, and theory-development opportunities as they direct, staff, attend, and provide supervision, the field has received limited scholarly attention. Not Just Play focuses on the relationship between social work and the summer camp movement and provides a comprehensive treatment of this underappreciated area of practice. Social workers and camp professionals will value the many advantages and connections explored in the volume, which also incorporates case vignettes and core scholarly research. The text offers readers a multifaceted examination of social work and summer camp that broadens their professional and scholarly perspective.

Not Just Play

Summer Camp and the Profession of Social Work

Meryl Nadel and Susan Scher

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction

Section One. Nature, Growth, and Group
Chapter 1. Natural Environment as Refuge, Nurturer, Catalyst
Chapter 2. Resilience and the Strengths Perspective in Action
Chapter 3. Community, Group, Group Work

Section Two. Social Work and Summer Camp in Historical Perspective
Chapter 4. The Beginnings of the Summer Camp Movement
Chapter 5. From Fresh Air to Summer Camp: Social Work Enters the Picture
Chapter 6. Growth and Development of Social Work Camps: 1920s-1940s
Chapter 7. Expansive Growth, Changing Times: 1950s-1970s
Chapter 8. The Therapeutic Camp: Trends in Camps for Children with Social-Emotional Challenges
Chapter 9. The Group Experience in Camping: Observations from Schwartz and Shulman
William Schwartz and Lawrence Shulman

Section Three. Camps and the Social Work Profession
Chapter 10. Roles for Social Workers
Chapter 11. Recruitment to the Profession
Chapter 12. Social Work Researchers Go to Camp
Dana R. Dillard, Stacey R. Kolomer, and Katharine Hanavan
Chapter 13. Group-Work Orientation in the Contemporary Summer Camp

Section Four. Social Work and Camps Today
Chapter 14. Camps for Many Populations
Chapter 15. Social Work Students at Camp: Field Placements and Service Learning at Summer Camp
Chapter 16. Opportunities and Issues

Not Just Play

Summer Camp and the Profession of Social Work

Meryl Nadel and Susan Scher

Author Information

Meryl Nadel, DSW, ACSW, LCSW, is Professor of Social Work at Iona College.

Susan Scher, MSSA, LCSW, is Professor Emeritus of Social Work at Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Contributors:

Dana R. Dillard
Katharine Hanavan
Stacey R. Kolomer
Lawrence Shulman

Not Just Play

Summer Camp and the Profession of Social Work

Meryl Nadel and Susan Scher

Reviews and Awards

"Not Just Play covers an important subject at an important time. The survival of summer camps run by settlement houses and other nonprofit organizations is threatened as costs mount and affordability, particularly for low- and moderate-income families, becomes increasingly challenging. Readers will be impressed with the tremendous impact summer camps have had not only on children but also on the staff whose skills were developed there and whose devotion allowed children to flourish." -- Nancy Wackstein, MSW, Director of Community Engagement and Partnerships, Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University; Former Executive Director, United Neighborhood Houses of New York

"In Not Just Play, the authors draw our attention to the profound and important ways-from individual to macro systemic benefits-in which camps have benefited clients and their families and advanced professional understanding of the interplay between environment, mental, and physical well-being." -- Darrell P. Wheeler, PHD, MPH, ACSW, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Iona College; Former President, National Association of Social Workers

Not Just Play