Friday COCAcademy with Emily Golinsky
Friday COCAcademy with Emily Golinsky
Join Emily for a workshop focused on camp-wide behavior support!
About Emily:
I have been involved with summer camps since age 4, and I am passionate about the life-changing opportunities that camps can provide for children. In 2019, after 15 years, I left my role as Executive Director of Camp Starfish, an amazing non-profit organization that provides summer and year-round programs for children and teens with serious emotional, behavioral, social and learning challenges using a 1-to-1 ratio of staff to campers.
As Executive Director at Starfish, I was responsible for the strategic positioning of the organization, fiscal management, board development, fundraising, program oversight, risk management, and all the management functions that come along with running a $3-million+ dollar non-profit organization. While there, we acquired a permanent property for the camp, developed that property, and built a year-round conference center on site. Until 2012, I was also the Camp Director, and throughout my tenure at Starfish, I had an active, hands-on management role in the day-to-day operations of camp, year-round respite programs, and rental groups.
It was through my work at Starfish that I developed a passion both for training and for special education advocacy. Each year, we produced a 350+ page staff training manual, and a four-week leadership and staff training which prepared thousands of young adults to work safely and effectively with youth that had serious difficulties, as well as to supervise and to teach others these skills. This work was always a highlight of my year. Additionally, spending time with parents, teachers, referrers, and care professionals – as well, of course, as campers – made me realize how lucky we were at Starfish to be able to create a world where children could be successful – something they often did not find in other settings. I became determined to figure out a way to expand that success to the school year by working in the special education advocacy space.
Regarding education, I hold a Bachelor of Science in Health Psychology from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MA) and a Master of Science in Camp Administration and Leadership from Touro University (NV). I recently completed my Higher Education Teaching Certificate from Harvard.
I am active in the American Camp Association New England section as a Lead Accreditation Standards Visitor, and a volunteer on the Board Stewardship committee. I am also proud to serve as President for the Board of Directors for the NH Camps Association where I also sit on the Legislative, DHHS (state licensing) and Finance committees.
My full time work is fulfilling and amazing in so many ways! I travel around the country (and out of the country) training, teaching, consulting, coaching, and helping youth-serving camps, schools, agencies, and organizations build their best experiences for the campers, staff, and families. I give keynote speeches and lead breakout sessions at conferences and interact with youth development professionals around the world. It’s a cool job and I love it.
I am a self-selected member of the National Sarcasm Society and an avid collector of terribly awesome puns – something some would call a character flaw but I prefer to regard as a quirk. 🙂
COCAcademy Session Title: Build Your Behavior Playbook: Designing a Camp-Wide Behavior Support Framework That Truly Fits Your Program & Participants
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Conference tracks Emily’s sessions will include: Operations/Leadership and Child Development Presentation Summary: |
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Every camp has behavior strategies. Few camps have a comprehensive behavior support framework that is intentionally designed, consistently implemented, and reflects their unique philosophy, population, staff, and culture. This four-hour immersive workshop with Emily Golinsky from Bright Moose moves beyond behavior tips-and-tricks and instead helps you build a fully customized behavior support system that you can put into action immediately. Through guided activities, small-group collaboration, self-assessments, case studies, and planning templates, you’ll identify which strategies, policies, and messages fit your campers, staff, mission, and resources—and which don’t. Throughout the workshop, we’ll examine the operational decisions that shape how behavior is supported at camp. You’ll have time and individualized support to intentionally reflect on what’s already working, what deserves another look, and what’s missing altogether. The goal isn’t to create more rules—it’s to create a behavior support system with greater consistency, clarity, and credibility. Working alongside your colleagues from camps across the country, we’ll explore questions such as: Which strategies belong in every counselor’s toolbox? Which situations should be escalated to leadership? How do campers and families learn about our expectations before and during camp? Where do supervision, documentation, and staff training on these systems fit within our overall approach?…and more. Whether your camp is creating a behavior philosophy and strategy toolbox for the first time or refining an existing approach, you’ll leave this immersive, engaging workshop with a draft behavior playbook tailored to your camp, prioritized next steps, practical decision-making tools, and a clear roadmap for building a more consistent, compassionate, and accountable behavior support system. |
Measurable Objectives / Outcomes of Presentation:
Participants will:
(1) Assess their camp’s current approach to behavior support by identifying organizational strengths, gaps, and opportunities for greater consistency across policies, staff practices, and leadership systems;
(2) Develop a draft behavior playbook that defines their camp’s core behavioral support expectations, practices, decision-making frameworks; and
(3) Develop a plan for aligning staff training, supervision, documentation, and family communication around behavior management, and which reflects the camp’s philosophy, participant population, staffing structure, and operational needs.