Not Just Play: Summer Camp and the Profession of Social Work
Meryl Nadel and Susan Scher
Abstract
Not Just Play: Summer Camp and the Profession of Social Work offers the only book written in many decades that focuses on the relationship between social work and the summer camp movement. Is camp just play or more? This volume responds with a comprehensive treatment of this underappreciated field of practice.
In addition to updating their knowledge, social workers, students, and camp professionals will benefit froem the book’s exploration of many perspectives on this subject. The text features four sections. An introduction to underlying concepts is followed by a historical perspective on the ... More
Not Just Play: Summer Camp and the Profession of Social Work offers the only book written in many decades that focuses on the relationship between social work and the summer camp movement. Is camp just play or more? This volume responds with a comprehensive treatment of this underappreciated field of practice.
In addition to updating their knowledge, social workers, students, and camp professionals will benefit froem the book’s exploration of many perspectives on this subject. The text features four sections. An introduction to underlying concepts is followed by a historical perspective on the profession’s significant involvement in the development of nonprofit camps. The third section examines ways in which social workers contribute to camps: providing skilled practitioners for a range of key roles, serving as venues for research and recruitment to the profession, and providing a milieu for growth through group membership. The concluding section explores the myriad of opportunities offered by today’s camps for social workers and social work students.
Not Just Play offers several distinctive and unique features. Although scholarly research is a hallmark of the book, case vignettes are incorporated into many chapters. All comprise either first-person contributions or use primary source material. In addition, numerous quotations gathered from interviews and online questionnaires are incorporated into the text, many from well-known social workers citing the impact of their camp involvement. The book will inspire its readers to incorporate the peaceful, invigorating, growth experiences of summer camp and its environs with their client systems and—perhaps—themselves.
Keywords:
summer camp movement,
nonprofit camp,
recruitment,
group membership,
case vignette,
online questionnaire,
field of practice
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190496548 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: June 2019 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190496548.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Meryl Nadel, author
Professor, Iona College
Susan Scher, author
Professor Emeritus, Ramapo College of New Jersey
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