Connection without Contact

by Jim Cain

Connection Without Contact by Dr. Jim Cain features a comprehensive collection of group activities and best practices for future real-world in-person gatherings. From summer camps to conferences, workshops, training events, and classrooms, Connection Without Contact shares some of the world’s best cutting-edge ideas, resources, activities, and recommendations for creating connection with audiences of all kinds, while minimizing risk. In addition to the activity content from teambuilding guru Dr. Jim Cain, this book includes content from camp directors, youth development specialists, medical professionals, and others working hard to serve their communities even while a global pandemic rages around them. Can you actually build unity, community, and connection with participants while maintaining appropriate physical distancing? ABSOLUTELY, and this book will show you how. A must-have collection of activities and best practices for anyone working (or playing) in groups.

134 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book during the early part of 2021, I think, as my camp was contemplating whether we were going back in person that summer. At that point, it was really relevant, but I didn't have time to read it. Only now, I've gotten around to it, and it's.... okay. There are chapters in the book about possible games and activities to do in a rec setting that allow for people to be more spaced out. Those kinds of lists are good, even without a pandemic - for people who are touch-averse, for example. But there is also a chapter about the dutchman's rope, which anyone can make, but Jim Cain has for sale in his online store. And there's another chapter with interviews with rec professionals from this 2020-2021 time period, about how they modified their programs, but there's also a chapter warning against people ignoring the CDC's guidance for social distancing. There's a chapter that is 101 things to do while social distancing, but it's really just a word collage, with accompanying explanations in a very stream-of-consciousness, hard-to-read format. I don't know if Jim Cain was trying to fill pages to meet a minimum, or if he was trying to make a deadline and ran out of time, but some chapters wouldn't have even have been useful then.

I might have rated this book 3.5 stars in 2021, if I'd read it, but now it's closer to 2.5 stars.