The american camping association's (aca) purpose is to further children, youth, and adult welfare through the camp experience and to ensure the quality of camp and youth development programs by providing best practices and standards.

Member and field services is the member and customer development services of aca. Telephone and email support, technical assistance, operational components, and financial support are provided through a national staff of association management professionals to 23 local offices, which in turn, provide services locally to the public, camps, and camp professionals. Aca has 11,628 individual members. camp and youth development education reflects aca's community of parents and professionals who join together to share knowledge to enhance human development. As a result of aca educational programs and services, youth and adults learn powerful lessons in community, character-building, skill development, and healthy living . A primary vehicle for disseminating education and information to camp professionals is through the annual aca national conference. More than 1,600 individuals attended the four-day conference in walt disney world in february 2018. Numerous local and regional in-person events are offered. In addition, online education, including asynchronous courses, webinars, and certificates of added qualification extend professional development opportunities to non-traveling learners. More than 6,718 learners participated in 2017-2018 offerings. Camp and youth development also includes aca's research programs at the national level. accreditation is a voluntary process that over 2,727 camps have chosen to go through. This communicates to parents that a camp has voluntarily undergone a peer to peer review of up to 300 health and safety standards that apply to resident and day camps. The aim of this program is to educate camp staff in the administration of key aspects of camp operation, particularly those related to program quality and the health and safety of campers and staff.