At a Glance: From Keynote Spark to Network-Wide Ignition
Embedding youth voice at scale is a challenge, even for seasoned youth professionals. That’s why SeriousFun Children’s Network partnered with Participation People. Not for a surface-level initiative, but a system-wide process, across SeriousFun’s global network of camps for children with serious illnesses and their families.
What began with a keynote at SeriousFun’s International Camp Gathering in Connecticut became a wider journey of reflection, diagnostics, consultancy, tool-building and strategic change across five camps: Camp Boggy Creek, The Painted Turtle, Flying Horse Farms, Double H Ranch and Round Up River Ranch.
Across the programme, Participation People supported SeriousFun camps to move from well-intentioned feedback activity to more consistent, creative and rights-based participation systems. We also helped teams listen to campers, act on what they heard and show young people how their voices shaped change.
Together, this work included:
- 218 diagnostic returns across the SeriousFun network
- 75+ staff members involved in focus groups, training and consultancy sessions
- 37 customised tools created or adapted
- 60+ young people directly engaged through panels, consultations and creative activities
- 8 camper-led videos and communications assets produced
- 2 Youth Advisory Panel pilots launched
- A network-level Business Case for Change presented to SeriousFun HQ
About SeriousFun Children’s Network
SeriousFun Children’s Network is a global community of camps and programmes serving children with serious illnesses and their families. Across the network, camps are rooted in joy, safety, belonging and life-changing experiences, and serve children who may otherwise miss out on the freedom and connection of camp.
Youth voice is not just a “nice-to-have” in this context.
It is central to quality, inclusion, safeguarding, emotional wellbeing and trust.
The question behind this work was simple but powerful: What if youth voice could become a strategic asset, a joyful experience, and a rights-based commitment all at once?
The Challenge: Brilliant Intent, Inconsistent Infrastructure
Across the SeriousFun network, camps already had strong relational practice. Staff cared deeply about camper wellbeing, and many camps were gathering feedback in creative and informal ways.
But the diagnostic work revealed a shared challenge: youth voice was valued everywhere, but embedded differently.
Common themes included:
- Feedback was often collected, but not always acted on visibly
- Camper insight was rarely connected to strategy, policy, recruitment or budget decisions
- Feedback tools often favoured confident, verbal or neurotypical campers
- Staff wanted to listen well, but needed clearer tools, time and shared language
- Campers did not always know what had changed because of their feedback
- There was no consistent network-wide evidence base for youth engagement and camper participation
The Aim: Building Joyful, Rights-Based Youth Voice
Participation People worked with SeriousFun camps to:
- Build a shared language for youth voice using Lundy’s Model of Child Participation
- Understand strengths and gaps across different camp contexts
- Create practical, low-burden tools that staff could use during busy camp life
- Make feedback more accessible for younger, non-verbal and neurodiverse campers
- Strengthen “You Said, Together We Did” feedback loops
- Connect youth voice to strategy, wellbeing, training, quality and future planning
- Develop a clear Business Case for Change for SeriousFun HQ
The goal was not to make every camp identical. It was to create enough shared structure to support consistency, while protecting the joy, flexibility and culture that make each camp unique.
The Strategy: From Inspiration to Implementation
Participation People designed a phased approach that allowed the work to move beyond insight and begin shaping infrastructure.
Phase 1: The Keynote That Sparked the Conversation
In October 2023, Participation People delivered a keynote at SeriousFun’s International Camp Gathering in Connecticut: “What Does Youth Voice Really Look Like?”
The session invited over 200 SeriousFun professionals to reflect on whether youth voice was being treated as meaningful influence, or as feedback collected too late to shape decisions.
It opened up a wider network conversation about youth voice as a driver of:
- Trust
- Wellbeing
- Safeguarding
- Programme quality
- Inclusion
- Innovation
- Organisational learning
Phase 2: Camper Engagement Diagnostics Across Five Camps
Between 2023 and 2025, five camps completed Participation People’s Camper Engagement Diagnostic, a bespoke reflection tool based on Lundy’s Model: Space, Voice, Audience and Influence.
The diagnostic explored how youth voice was embedded across:
- Programming and activities
- Medical care and emotional support
- Policies and governance
- Staff onboarding and training
- Strategic and budget decision-making
Across the camps, the data surfaced a consistent pattern: deep commitment, strong culture and brilliant practice in places, but variable systems, accountability and follow-through.
Phase 3: Bespoke Consultancy and Camp-Level Action
Each camp received tailored support based on its diagnostic results. Rather than imposing a single model, Participation People worked with staff and campers to co-create tools that matched local camp culture.
This included:
- Feedback walls, emoji maps and star-rating activities
- Camper-led explainer videos for staff training
- Youth Advisory Panel and Camper Advisory Forum models
- Youth-proofed surveys, onboarding materials and strategic planning tools
- RACI matrices and feedback-to-impact trackers
- Camper-friendly impact reports and zines
Phase 4: Business Case for Change
Learning from the diagnostics and consultancy work was then brought together into a wider Business Case for Change for SeriousFun HQ.
This positioned youth voice not as an isolated engagement activity, but as essential infrastructure for camp quality, emotional safety, inclusion and long-term impact.
What We Built Together
Across the SeriousFun network, Participation People and camp teams developed a menu of practical, joyful and scalable youth voice tools.
These included:
- Youth Advisory Panels and Camper Advisory Forums to create structured routes for influence
- Camper-led explainer videos to support staff onboarding and training
- Emoji maps, wish walls, star maps and feedback quests to make participation visual and accessible
- Zine diaries and story circles to support reflection and emotional expression
- Youth-proofed surveys and onboarding documents to make materials more accessible
- RACI matrices to clarify who collects, reviews and acts on camper insight
- Camper-friendly impact reports to show young people what changed because of their voice
Camp Diagnostics: What the Five Camps Taught Us
Each camp brought its own culture, strengths and starting point. Together, the diagnostics revealed consistent patterns, offering a clear picture of what goes into embedding youth voice at scale.
Camp Boggy Creek: Youth Engagement Works Best With Joy
Camp Boggy Creek used the diagnostic process to explore how camper feedback could be aligned with a wider emotional wellness strategy.
The team piloted creative tools including whiteboard stars, zine journaling and emoji maps, helping campers share experiences in ways that did not rely only on verbal or written feedback.
Key shifts included:
- Weekly “joy reviews” connecting emotional well-being and programme delivery
- Camper impact report templates for staff reflections and family communications
- A developing RACI map to clarify accountability for acting on insight
- Greater recognition of youth voice as a measure of wellness and programme quality
“Thanks to Participation People, we’ve learned that youth engagement can and should be creative and fun.”
— Dan Jurman, Camp Director, Boggy Creek
Flying Horse Farms: Listening With Purpose Builds Strategy
Flying Horse Farms however, used the diagnostic process to ask how youth voice could shape future planning, including facilities, programmes and long-term strategy.
Participation People supported staff training, Youth Advisory Board development and a review of feedback forms and strategic surveys with Young Consultants.
Key shifts included:
- 14 senior leaders completing the diagnostic with a 100% response rate
- Youth voice named in strategic planning documentation
- Young Consultants youth-proofing a 10–15 year strategic planning survey
- A feedback-to-impact map linking camper insight to policies, orientation, programme design and future buildings
“We’ve moved from just listening to listening with purpose. Now we close the loop — visibly.”
— Flying Horse Farms Leadership Team
The Painted Turtle: Caring and Co-Creation Should Be the Foundation
The Painted Turtle used the diagnostic to examine the gap between strong care systems and less developed youth engagement infrastructure.
Staff identified that youth voice was present, but not consistently embedded into strategy, training or decision-making. Participation People supported the team to explore youth-proofed onboarding, feedback loops and more inclusive ways of gathering insight.
Key shifts included:
- 100% leadership participation in the diagnostic
- Greater clarity around youth voice gaps and goals
- Early-stage tools including emoji feedback walls and camper shout-out boards
- Plans for youth-led training, seasonal advisory structures and youth voice metrics
“There’s lots to do. But the potential is beautiful. And the campers are ready.”
— Camp Director, The Painted Turtle
Double H Ranch: Every Voice Counts, Even the Silent Ones
Double H Ranch focused on building inclusive, low-fidelity feedback systems that could reflect every camper — not only the loudest or most confident voices.
Participation People supported the team to pilot multi-format feedback activities, staff training videos and visible feedback loops that could become part of everyday camp life.
Key shifts included:
- 8 tailored feedback sessions delivered and piloted
- 5 camper-created explainer videos used in onboarding
- A visible Camper Feedback Wall linked to programme announcements
- More consistent tracking and sharing of camper feedback stories
“We used to guess what campers needed. Now, we ask. And more importantly — we show them we listened.”
— Double H Ranch Programme Lead
Round Up River Ranch: Let Young People Lead the Way
Round Up River Ranch used the diagnostic to explore how youth voice could shift from feedback to a force for cultural change.
With 100% diagnostic participation from 17 staff, the camp worked with Participation People to create youth-led training videos, a pilot Camper Advisory Panel structure and practical feedback loop tools.
Key shifts included:
- 4 explainer videos produced and embedded into onboarding
- A Camper Advisory Panel structure created and tested
- 3 onboarding documents rewritten and youth-approved
- A shift in language from “surveys” to “conversations” and from “listening” to “power-sharing”
“We’re not waiting for perfect conditions anymore. We’re building camper voice into who we are — with campers leading the way.”
— Camp Leadership Team
The Impact: Safer, Stronger Camps Through Embedding Youth Voice At Scale
Across the programme, the impact was felt at three levels: campers, staff teams and the wider SeriousFun network.
For Campers
Youth voice became more accessible, expressive and visible. Tools like emoji maps, zines, feedback quests and story circles helped more young people share their experiences — including younger, non-verbal and neurodiverse campers.
When young people are given routes to shape the spaces designed for them, trust, confidence and belonging are built, and campers understand that their voice isn’t a complaint, but a valuable contribution.
For Staff Teams
Staff developed shared language, confidence and practical tools for embedding youth voice at scale, and in daily camp life.
Across camps, teams began shifting from:
- “Ask at the end” to “listen all the way through”
- “Collect feedback” to “show what changed”
- “Youth voice as activity” to “youth voice as culture”
By providing staff with practical ways to understand what campers need, they are able to spot patterns earlier, deliver more relevant support, and make better decisions together.
For the SeriousFun Network
At network level, the work created a clearer, shared understanding of why camper voice matters, and how it can be embedded consistently across different camp settings.
The real value of embedding youth voice at scale is not just a “nice-to-have”. It strengthens the whole system and supports emotional safety, inclusion, accessibility, staff development and programme quality.
That is the shift: from listening because it feels right, to listening because it makes camps safer, stronger and more responsive to the children they exist to serve.
Core Principles Behind the Work
Several principles made the work successful across very different camp contexts.
1. Rights-Based, Camp-Friendly Language
Lundy’s Model gave the work rigour, but Participation People translated it into practical, joyful camp language. This helped teams talk about Space, Voice, Audience and Influence without losing the warmth of camp culture.
2. Low-Fidelity, High-Impact Tools
The most effective tools were often simple: stickers, walls, maps, story prompts, zines and short videos. They worked because they could be used in real camp conditions, not just in perfect workshop settings.
3. Visible Feedback Loops
Closing the loop was central. “You Said, Together We Did” trackers, shout-outs, assemblies and feedback walls helped campers see that their voice mattered, and they are valued.
4. Staff Permission and Structure
Many staff already wanted to listen well. What they needed was permission, shared language and practical structures to act on camper insight confidently.
5. Youth-Led Creativity
Camper-created videos, youth-proofed documents and advisory models built trust faster than adult-designed initiatives alone.
Final Reflection: From Feedback to Influence
This journey shows that youth engagement is not just a practice — it is a promise.
A promise to listen.
To act.
And to share power with the young people SeriousFun exists to serve.
From keynote spark to camper-led systems change, SeriousFun Children’s Network has taken bold steps towards embedding youth voice at scale, in ways that are joyful, practical, rights-based and deeply rooted in camp culture.
But, this work doesn’t stop here — it continues as camps scale advisory models, deepen youth-led training, and embed camper voice into the systems shaping their lives.
“Participation People challenged us to think bigger and deeper about what youth voice really means. It’s not just a feedback form. It’s a way of building better camps, with campers.”
— SeriousFun HQ Stakeholder
At Participation People, this is how we work: supporting organisations to move from listening to action, and from one-off projects to systems that genuinely share power with young people.
If you’d like to explore what this could look like for your organisation, get in touch.
