Our summer staff team is primarily made up of high school and college students. Our youngest staff members must have completed their freshman year of high school by the time summer camp begins, and be at least 14 years old by the time camp begins. Current 7th and 8th grade students may apply for our Counselor In Training (CIT) program.

We totally understand. Working at Camp usually means putting in longer hours and more demanding work than you might at another summer job. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t accomplish your goals for the summer! If you’re thinking about how much money you’d need to make this summer, click here to use our Wage Calculator tool to get an estimate of what you could make by working at Camp. If you need an internship for school, we have several internship-ready positions that we can adapt to fit your internship requirements. We’re also passionate about seeing you grow in your faith, and we’ll walk with you all summer long as you learn to make disciples alongside your friends.

Not at all! We schedule staff week-by-week. You can request time off for a week at a time so you can still go on vacation with your family, take a mission trip, or attend your own summer camp. Our summer program runs for 11-12 consecutive weeks from June through August, and you can tell us which weeks you are available to work. Each position has its own unique scheduling requirements, so please reach out if you have questions about your specific availability - send an email to staff@cocusa.org

We offer a weekly ministry stipend for all of our summer camp staff members. Here’s what weekly compensation looks like for Summer Camp 2022:

• Activity Assistants = $120/week first time || $135/week returning

• Counselors = $250/week first time || $275/week returning

• Team Leads = $350/week first time || $375/week returning

• Assistant Directors = $400/week first time || $425/week returning

• Site Directors = $450/week first time || $475/week returning

• Regional Directors = $540/week first time || $563/week returning

Click here to use our Wage Calculator tool to get an estimate of what you could make by working at Camp this summer. If you have more questions about compensation (or anything else) just send an email to staff@cocusa.org.

Counselors are responsible for a group of 7-10 campers. Team Leads oversee their team of 2-3 Counselors with all of their campers. Site Directors lead all the staff and campers at their location with the support of the Assistant Director. Activity Assistants do not directly lead any campers, but play an important role in supporting the Counselors and other staff as they lead activities throughout the day.

We have camp locations all across Central IL in Peoria, Pekin, Morton, Germantown Hills, and Normal. Check out our Locations page for all the details about each of our locations.

The camp days starts when campers arrive at 7:30am and ends with final pick-up at 5:30pm. Some staff members arrive early to open and set-up, and some stay at the end of the day to close down. Director-level positions work around 10 hours/day, and Team Leads work around 9 hours/day, Counselors work around 8 hours/day, and Activity Assistants work a 5 hour half-day shift.

All 14 and 15 year old staff members requiring a work permit will not exceed their required 40 hour/week limit.

Many of our staff members don’t have any formal experience working with kids before joining our team. We’ll provide you all the training you need to effectively lead your campers this summer before your first day. Staff training begins with some online lessons that you can work through at your own pace. In the weeks leading up to the start of summer camp, we’ll put on several in-person training workshops to make sure you’re well equipped to begin the summer. During the summer, we’ll continue to develop your leadership skills as you put everything into practice. We’re confident that you’ll finish the summer as a much more effective leader than when you started.