Who we are...
New Land Camps believes in the power of sustainable learning and education to forge a better future for all people. We exist to take learning to the next level.
Our three pillars reveal what we are about.
Re: Discovery - Re: Vitalization - Re: Connection.
These pillars support our mission by helping us to focus on creating powerful discovery and learning opportunities. We create fun, hands-on participation experiences that connect us, generate interest in learning, and build confidence in our ability to create a lasting impact. We promote vital environmental health, vital behavioral health, and vital community health.
"Go beyond. Grow together."
Our Pillars in Practice
Education
Our first goal is to educate people through the use of immersive, engaging, experiential methods. Our focus is on STEAM competency, promoting engagement, and setting up lifetime learning potential. We want you to learn "how to learn" and have a good time doing so. Interest in learning is where discovery begins.
Play
Life can be stressful, and play is the original way to learn, have fun, and de-stress. A key goal is to help you relax and enjoy yourself when participating in our programs and events. Play goes hand in hand with vitality.
Interconnection
We want to create an online and offline community of diverse people and personalities in order to contribute to the interconnection and interdependence that we have always relied on as a species as we push into the unknown future. Connection serves as a way to build community ties and mutually beneficial relationships.
Our Guiding Values
R.I.C.H.N.E.S.S. and Beyond
Values are guideposts used to ensure a person or community stays on an intentional path and acts within our purposes. They shape our morals, ethics, and actions and accord us the ability to understand how to 'course correct' in life's stormy weather. While we support each person's individual values, we also think there are values that help us to navigate our world. We have told you that we value Relationship, Innovation, Citizenship, Hope, Nourishment, Environment, Social Justice, and Sustainability (RICHNESS) for the way that they create an atmosphere of safety that enhance learning and development. You will see these values woven into the fabric of all our programs.
We also believe in encouraging...
Contribution - Participation and Relationship. Each person brings a unique contribution to our programs. We want to acknowledge this active and impactful role that each person takes on as a learning human. "Not a human being, a human doing", is Contribution's motto.
Resilience - Radical self-reliance. Sometimes called 'grit', this is the ability to persevere under difficult or challenging circumstances. Resilience adopts a 'Can Do' attitude, and a 'How To' approach.
Citizenship - Communcal Effectiveness. Citizenship is the way that an individual considers themselves as part of a broader community. Citizenship reflects a consideration for others and recognizes the impact that we have on the world around us through our actions and words. Citizenship recognizes commonality and interdependence, centering personal responsibility amongst global responsibility..
Imagination - Radical self-expression. Use of the imagination enables all learning potential. Imagination is the ability to problem solve, to consider other ideas, and to visualize what is possible prior to bringing the possible to realization through innovation. "If you can think it, you can do it", is Imagination's motto.
Creativity - Innovation. Creativity is the ability to create something with whatever is available. 'Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome' is its motto, and it reflects the use of imagination to create something or say something.
Critical Thinking - Radical Critique. Critical thinking is the ability to reflect and assess various stories or information and put together coherent understanding through thoughtful evaluation. Rather than acceptance of simplicity, critical thinking asks us to consider complexity.
Experience - Immediacy. Experience is an iterative experiment between ourselves and our world. Each person has the ability to learn through experience, to understand the world through direct, rather than vicarious, means.
Storytelling - Communication. Storytelling is the ability to talk about what happened through a lens of meaning. Valuing storytelling means that rather than seeing the world through one lens, or one truth, we open ourselves up to the plurality of perspectives and maintain an open mind to other meanings as a way to grow beyond our current capabilities into new possibilities.
Social Justice - Equality and Equity among peers. Social Justice is a lens for looking at the world that builds our self-understanding by helping us acknowledge our behavior and the behavior of our broader society now and historically. It helps us to be innovative and to do things differently, in a way that we all benefit and thrive.
Playfulness - Play is the original form of learning. We all come into the world with an innate sense of how to play. Encouraging this natural talent and using the power of play means that contributors want to be involved in their own learning experiences because they are fun.
Personal Agency - Immediacy. Personal agency is a person's expression of choice in words and action. Guided by this value, we ensure that each person is able to choose for themselves and not be forced into an experience. This does not mean putting aside challenge, but asking oneself which challenge one wants to accept. Its motto is, "Choose your challenge".
Our history
New Land Camps was incorporated in 2021 by Paul and Danielle Newland, with a concept of promoting innovation, curiosity and exploration by providing fun and educational programming for youth and adults. Engaging people in "play with purpose" by organizing STEAM³ projects, camps, conferences, celebrations, retreats, community events, leadership exercises and teambuilding programs is a continuing goal of New Land Camps and the New Land Camps team.
Our programs and partnerships since we began have enabled us to design and run immersive educational programming for youth groups, schools, corporate groups, and fellow non-profit organizations.
In 2021, we began consulting with Los Angeles county non-profit partners in 1-on-1 behavioral health meetings. Our eduLARPs were brought to a local youth group while we worked with our community partner SacredPlay to bring leadership development programs and teambuilding to corporate groups, behavioral health programs, and schools.
In 2022, we completed our acquisition of materials and finished program design for our innovative shelter-building program for our "Refuge" CAMPaign. We gathered infrastructure donations and began the initial design phase for our "Unsettled" summer CAMPaign. We beta-tested our escape-room and other edularp activities with support from local summer camps.
We wanted to expand our impact even further by meeting the most critical social, learning, and behavioral health needs. In 2023, our co-CEO began the doctoral journey, focusing research efforts on sustainable learning and education and gathering data to design more effective learning models and practices. Our work continued with community partners, while we gathered information and resources to prepare for our funding and growth phase, scheduled for 2026.
In 2024 and 2025, we began gathering STEAM³ with continued program offerings, engaging financial and fiscal sponsorship, and completing research. Our co-CEO received a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education emphasizing Sustainable Learning and Education. Our partnerships with local organizations grew deeper roots as we reached out to new clients. Our planned effort to kick off our first major funding phase began in early 2025 as we set out to apply for feasibility study and program grants.
Our behavioral health consultations have led to measurable gains among participants in small group and one-on-one settings. Our sustainability research has guided us towards two aims: ongoing research efforts to better understand how to sustain all learners across the lifespan, and making a lasting impact through hands-on, project-based, and role-oriented learning programs.
Our mission grew from our own experiences in education, and a shared commitment to the power of immersive learning methods in shaping how people learn. We believe interest in learning is the seed for sustaining learning across the lifespan as our workplaces and roles become ever more complex. We believe that building, making, asking questions, and planting are core to human behavioral and community health. We look forward to serving our communities more effectively in the years ahead.
"If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together."
"If you want to go beyond, grow together."
Leadership Development and Teambuilding
Coastal Excursions and Hikes
School-based programming
The Newland Family
Paul Newland
Paul Newland, B.S., M.S., Ph.D., LMFT, is a researcher, business owner, behavioral health therapist, facilitator, and outdoor educator operating in the western United States. Paul loves leading groups in educational or adventure-based experiences and working one-on-one with individuals to uncover their unique path to health and vitality. He finds passion in examining and growing the processes which enable people to discover their purpose and the values that light up their lives along the road to success.
Danielle Newland
Danielle Newland, B.A. is a business owner, community engagement specialist, youth and program director, coordinator, facilitator, curriculum creator, experiential educator, and summer camp director living in the western United States with her family. Her passion is in developing excitement, leadership skills, and youth engagement through the power of imagination and play. She understands the power of community in the curation of identity and continues to focus on bringing people together in diverse environments.
100+
donations made to NewLand Camps to support our programming and impact
Accomplishments
New Land Camps consistently engages in different projects aimed at raising awareness, interest, stewardship, and community connection.