LIT to Speak at Annual Meeting

LIT Phillip will be speaking at the Northwestern Settlement Annual Meeting April 19 We'd like to introduce Phillip, a special guest at our Celebration of Sharing! Phillip, a Leader in Training at House In The Wood Camp, will be sharing his experiences with Camp. We'll let this unique 14-year-old introduce himself: Some people call a certain amusement park in Florida "the happiest place on earth." Obviously, they've never been to House In The Wood. This summer will mark my fourth year as a House In The Wood camper and my second as a Leader in Training. My folks say I'm like an ambassador for the camp because I'm always telling people what a beautiful and amazing place it is. I've had some of the best times of my life there swimming, boating, hiking, laughing, learning, making friends and of course, playing GaGa ball. House In The Wood is my very own magic kingdom. The staff at House In The Wood are looking forward to seeing your speech--best of luck!

House In The Wood is a program of Northwestern Settlement

New Logo for House In the Wood

Northwestern Settlement has changed their logo to reflect the entire breath of programs and services they offer to the Chicago community. All programs and services of the Settlement fall within one of the THREE mission words--Nurture, Educate or Inspire. Each Settlement mission word has its own color. And each program has a small logo to represent them which nestles within the Northwestern Settlement Logo.

House In the Wood is the INSPIRE part of the mission! And our color is orange.

This is our new TEE SHIRT LOGO...watch for it on this year's SUMMER CAMP tee shirts.

We Are In A National Magazine!

Camping Magazine for July/August features House In The Wood...

Take a Look! Click on the Cover.

Outdoor Ed Program Assessments

We have started doing pre and post assessments of our lessons to see if we are doing what we SAY we are doing. We also do post assessments on social emotional learning (SEL) topics like teamwork, responsibility and independence.

The academic assessment results below come from a Chicago Middle School (7th grade) who did one OUTDOOR EDUCATION lesson with us called "Meet the Herps". This lesson met our amphibian and reptile friends at the Valerie Hall Outdoor Education Center. We also talked about animal classification, metamorphosis and adaptation.

While they were here for three days, they also did tree climbing and archery as well as activities designed by their teachers.

Here is the academic assessment for the Meet the Herps lesson.



Here are the results from their SEL assessment.

Feedback from the middle school leadership...House In The Woods was such a magical experience for us this year! 7th grade had a turbulent school year and it was so awesome that we ended the year on a positive note. Thank you for your hospitality, and patience with our group! This was the first end of the year trip that the principle has ever attended and she was deeply impressed. I did strongly recommend that both 6th and 7th grade should experience HITW every year.

Copyright 2016

House In The Wood Honored for Program Excellence by American Camp Association

House In The Wood is proud to announce that its Summer Camp program has been selected for the Eleanor P. Eells Award for Program Excellence. Our Summer Camp program has recently been recognized at the state and regional levels, but this national award from the American Camp Association is an especially high honor.

From ACA:

Eleanor P. Eells Awards for Program Excellence are designed to honor camp programs that:

1. Develop effective, creative responses to the needs of people and/or societal problems using the camp environment,  
2. Encourage continued development of such ideas,
3. Stimulate the exchange of creative ideas, and/or
4. Present to the public examples of positive contributions camp has made on the well being of individuals and society

The award will be presented at the ACA National Convention on February 9, 2016. We at House In The Wood and Northwestern Settlement are very proud to be the recipients of such an honor. We are proud of the Summer Camp program and the people who earned it. The inspiring programming and transformative experiences provided at House In The Wood are a vital component of our mission as an organization. This award strengthens our resolve to always reach higher for our campers.

We thank our staff, volunteers, supporters and the community whose tremendous efforts make Summer Camp possible. This honor is for all of you.

House In The Wood is ACA Accredited

House In The Wood has been accredited by the American Camp Association for many years. But those familiar with the ACA's accreditation process know that this mark of accountability does not last a lifetime; camps must work to keep it! ACA accredited camps are visited during programming once every three years and assessed on an exhaustive battery of guidelines and standards. House In The Wood was visited this past summer and we passed our assessment with flying colors!

The ACA Accreditation standards are focused on the safety and well being of campers, staff and the facilities and environment that make up the camp. Compliance with these standards is what allows House In The Wood to provide the safe, nurturing environment to its campers year after year. There are many standards and they are assessed strictly, so we are proud of the hard work of our staff in keeping House In The Wood in full compliance.

Rouse Cottage-New Lodging

What it will look like when it is done...

It should be completed in April 2015 or maybe even BEFORE! 

The building will have 5 bedrooms. Each bedrooms sleeps 4 people in bunk beds. 

It will have two restrooms with showers and a living room with a kitchenette.

A very BIG thank you to the Rouse Family for the donation.

House In The Wood

A program of Northwestern Settlement