Once a camp decides that they want to implement the North Star Girls Group at Camp Program, they need to decide how they want to offer it to the girls. The appropriate age range is for girls ages 10-16. The North Star Program can be one of the activities offered during camp, kind of like arts and crafts or water skiing. The North Star Program could also be a more focused draw for a camp – i.e. have a one week camp that is primarily focused on the North Star Curriculum and have most of the programming focused on the North Star sessions and themes. Camps can offer it as an elective for one of their activity periods or it can be a program that every girl goes through during the camp session. In order to get more interest and buzz about the program prior to the beginning of the season, camps should write up descriptions of the program for their camp brochures and registration forms.

The North Star Girls Group at Camp curriculum has 10 sessions – but the length of each session, or how often the group meets can be flexible. For a two-week camp, North Star Groups could meet once a day. In a one-week camp, North Star Groups could meet twice a day or the length of the meeting time could be increased or the number of sessions could be reduced. Each session is designed to be roughly an hour long, but facilitators can easily change this for each session to last up to two hours. It would be difficult to complete one North Star session in less than an hour.

The North Star Groups are designed to have 8-10 girls in each group and that members of a particular North Star Group stay together through the duration of the program. There can be multiple North Star Groups running at the same time, but part of the success of the North Star Groups is that group members bond with each other and form supportive relationships. It is also best if groups of girls can be similar ages. For example, have a few groups of girls ages 11-13 and a few groups consisting of girls ages 13-16. This helps the topics and conversations stay relevant and appropriate.

If possible, groups should meet at the same time each day and have a consistent place to meet. It is best if groups can meet in a place that is fairly private so that girls do not have to worry about others hearing what they are talking about and that they are not distracted with other activities going on around them. This could be the Arts and Crafts room, or a specific location outside, or a classroom. If this is not possible, then even a specific corner of a large gym or at the camp circle will work. It is important that the setting of the North Star Group is consistent and a place that the girls can deem their own.

Camps will need to purchase facilitator manuals to give to the counselors/staff who will be facilitating North Star Groups and also North Star Journals for each girl they expect to participate in the program. This will require camps to most likely purchase a large number of journals for the girls prior to the beginning of their programs. Manuals and journals can be purchased here. Journals are priced individually, so camps may want to pass the cost of this to parents before the camp session begins.