From March 27-31, 2025, two staff members from our YMCA had the incredible opportunity to take part in Campacity 2025, a capacity-building conference for YMCA camps across Europe and the USA. This year, the event was held at Camp Perspektiv Fabrik, a scenic campsite located near Brandenburg an der Havel, just west of Berlin, Germany.

Campacity is an annual conference hosted in a different country each year, organized by YMCA Europe, YMCA of the USA, and this year YMCA Germany as host. It brought together around 80 camp professionals and youth workers from both continents to exchange knowledge, share experiences, and strengthen the global YMCA camping movement.

The conference focused on empowering YMCA camps with innovative, impact-driven approaches—covering key areas such as youth resilience, mental health, conflict transformation, trauma healing, work with refugees and more. It also serves as a space for collaboration and connection between camp leaders committed to working with war-affected youth and families, including displaced communities.

Our Experience

We spent four unforgettable days immersed in workshops, camp sessions, and informal networking. Each day offers two parallel agendas with sessions on different camp-related topics, ranging from outdoor learning methods to trauma-sensitive programming—all allowing us to split up, cover more ground, and exchange insights afterward.

Evenings were reserved for campfire activities, games, and cultural exchange, creating a relaxed and friendly atmosphere that brought participants closer together beyond the formal learning.

We returned home enriched with new knowledge, meaningful connections, and a renewed motivation to make our camps more inclusive, healing, and impactful for every young person who joins them.

What Participants Loved

“We shared experiences and best practices and learned from other people.” — Claudia
“I feel inspired to bring communities together and offer awesome camp experiences.” — Dana
“We learned about camp culture building… like an energy gel.” — Ana
“The energy, the joy, the whole camp vibe is exactly what I always dreamed of.”