Camps & youth programs

Background checks for the volunteers who run your camp — $5 each.

Camps live and die on volunteers — coaches, counselors, group leaders, and parent helpers who spend long, unsupervised days with children. VolunteerBadge screens every one of them with FCRA-compliant checks and built-in identity verification, fast enough to clear a whole roster before opening day.

$5 per check Identity-verified FCRA-compliant

Every kind of camp, every season

Find your camp for the specific screening considerations — who you're vetting, how fast you need them cleared, and the safety stakes unique to your program.

Football summer camp

Screen the volunteer coaches, position trainers, and team parents who run youth football camps all summer.

Vacation Bible School (VBS)

Clear a whole congregation of one-week volunteers — fast — before the kids arrive for VBS.

Soccer camp

Avoid the common screening mistakes youth soccer camps make with coaches and helpers.

Basketball camp

A screened roster vs. an unscreened one is the difference between covered and exposed.

STEM camp

Parents research your mentors before they enroll — make screening the easy yes.

Spring break camp

Clear a last-minute, one-week volunteer roster in hours before break starts.

Day camp

Eight hours of unsupervised access a day — screen every counselor and helper.

Baseball camp

Cages and bullpens mean one-on-one time — screen the whole dugout.

Track & field camp

A dozen events, a dozen volunteer coaches — clear them all.

Swim camp

The water and locker room demand your most-trusted, fully screened volunteers.

Volleyball camp

Fill the roster fast — and clear every coach just as fast.

Cheer camp

Spotting and stunting are hands-on — screen every coach and spotter.

Coding camp

In the lab or over video — screen every mentor, on-site and online.

Arts & crafts camp

A relaxed studio is still hours of close, one-on-one contact.

Music camp

Private, one-on-one lessons are the highest-trust setting you run.

Theater camp

Long rehearsals, late nights, dressing rooms — screen everyone backstage.

Nature camp

Off-site and out of sight — your trail guides earn the most trust.

Winter break camp

Holiday-break childcare gathered fast — screened just as fast.

Fall break camp

A few days off school is still full days with your volunteers.

Overnight camp

24-hour access is the highest trust you will ever extend.

Church youth camp

Overnight retreats put leaders with teens, far from home.

Scout camp

Two-deep leadership and a background check — you need both.

Special needs camp

Personal care for vulnerable campers is the deepest trust there is.

The part of camp nobody wants to talk about

Camps put volunteers with children day and night. Watch the reporting on how abuse cases at camps unfolded, learn the grooming patterns that get missed, and take three free workbooks with you: a boundary pattern log, a reference check script, and a supervision gap audit.

Camp abuse prevention

Free for camp directors · no account, no email

The workbooks camps usually pay for

Accreditation paperwork, certification expiry, ratios, hiring, cabins, the health center, incidents and transportation. Every one is a real Excel file with live formulas, and none of them ask for anything in return.

Accreditation Tracker

Every standard, every document, every owner — with a countdown.

Certification Tracker

Catch the lapsed lifeguard certificate in March, not July.

Ratio Planner

Find the cabin that is over ratio before the campers arrive.

Hiring Pipeline

Nobody reaches opening day half-cleared.

Cabin Planner

Capacity, ages, buddy requests and allergies in one place.

Season Budget

The line items a camp actually has, including the three insurances.

Health Center Log

Medications on file, every dose given, and every visit — in one workbook.

Incident Log

Facts-only incident records, and the season review an accreditation visitor asks for.

Trip Roster

Drivers cleared, permission slips in, and the headcount that has to match.

Boundary Pattern Log

Counts the small things nobody connects — by person, and by camper.

Reference Check Script

Nine questions asked the same way every time, and a scorecard that adds them up.

Supervision Audit

Twenty ordinary moments where one adult can be alone with one child.

Working toward accreditation?

The ACA accreditation year, month by month

The application deadline for a summer visit is February 1, which is why most guides reach camps too late to use. Our guide walks the whole calendar — the eligibility rules that disqualify some programs outright, what the fee does and does not cover, and why the standards structure most articles describe has been out of date since November 2025.

Read the accreditation guide

VolunteerBadge is not affiliated with, endorsed by or accredited by the American Camp Association. “ACA” is a trademark of its owner, used here only to refer to that organization.