KERR COUNTY, Texas — A new grant awarded to local nonprofit The Safety Navigator plants to bring camps in the Hill Country together for the purpose of developing and testing safety resources, according to a statement from the camp safety platform.
The $287,000 grant was provided by the Community foundation of the Texas Hill Country (CFTHC) awarded through the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund and is designed to give Texas youth camps new safety tools and training. Ultimately, the goal is to make these resources available nationwide, the statement said.
“Long-term recovery means preparing communities for what comes next,” said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. “Camps are an important part of life in the Hill Country. This investment will help protect campers here and make practical safety resources available to camps across the country.”
Camps participating in the funded program will be given the following free activities and resources:
- A comprehensive safety training program for camp directors, leadership and seasonal staff, covering material risks such as aquatics, transportation and emergency response
- Summer Content Series capturing and sharing safety work underway across the camps in the Hill Country
- A locally-hired Hill Country Program Coordinator, giving every participating camp a single point of contact
- End-of-season reviews with Hill country camp leaders to capture what worked and what needs strengthening
- A Transportation Safety Toolkit addressing vehicle use, staff driving rules as well as vetting bus and charter companies
- A Hill Country Drill Package, including new drills as well as facilitated tabletop exercises built around region-specific hazards
- Hill Country edition of The Safety Navigator’s AI-assisted risk assessment tool, which adds region-specific risk categories and controls
- An AI-powered Emergency Action Plan builder to coach camps through building a custom emergency response plan
The Safety Navigator says they plan to use what proves valuable in this program for their nationwide expansion, which the nonprofit hopes to make available to any camp at no additional cost.
“The Hill Country is where this started for us, and we’re grateful to be pioneering it here too, alongside the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country,” said Charlee Johnson and Marleyna Palin, Co-Founders of The Safety Navigator. “This grant lets us build the industry’s best practice safety materials with a community that needs them, so Hill Country camps can lead the response for camps everywhere, not just the recovery.”
The Safety Navigator was founded shortly after the severe flash flooding on July 4, 2025. The nonprofit says it is the first “comprehensive, free, technology-enabled safety platform built specifically for the camp industry.”
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