Breakfast Club Blog

The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is a curated space where bloggers from around the world contribute content on a continual basis about a variety of topics relevant to in and out-of-school time. The BOOST Breakfast Club blog is at the heart of an ongoing dialogue where expanded learning and education professionals share their personal thoughts and stories from the in and out-of-school time field. They also tell us what they ate for breakfast!

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Enjoy the brain food.

The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is Brain Food for In and Out-of-School Time Leaders!

Interested in becoming a blogger? Email [email protected]

Click here to Register for a free account or click here to Login to your existing account.

Possibility Through Policy: Connecting More Children To Afterschool Meals

The federal Afterschool Nutrition Programs provide funding to serve suppers and snacks to children alongside educational and enrichment programming, offering a solution to the nutritional and opportunity gaps that exist for too many students after the school day ends. The meals and snacks help draw children into those educational and enrichment activities, which support academic achievement and provide much-needed childcare for working parents. And while participation in the Afterschool Meal Pro...Read More

The Homestretch: 2019 Campaign to Save California’s Afterschool Programs

Editor’s Note: Welcome our newest Breakfast Club Blogger Jen Dietrich. Jen is the Director of Policy for Partnership for Children & Youth and the coordinator of the California Afterschool Advocacy Alliance (CA3) and the Save Afterschool Campaign. This month, we will learn if state-funded afterschool programs will be given the funding they need to survive. After School Education and Safety (ASES) programs across California are struggling to provide the high-quality support that more tha...Read More

Designing Innovation for Equity: What’s Taking So Long?

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally posted on May 07, 2018 on the TGR Foundation’s blog site. We are reposting with the author’s permission.  — Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion at the ASU+GSV Summit, representing TGR Foundation and the work we do. Speaking to a packed room, our session, Designing Innovation for Equity, set out to broadly explore equity issues in relationship to the Innovation Economy-focused redesign of education sy...Read More

Part 2: The Great ASES Augmentation of 2017 – A Children’s Story

In 2015, Sir Mark Leno from the village of San Francisco introduced a bill to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. By now, the full resources of CA3 were focused on the issue, but that still amounted to very little in comparison to the magnitude of the quest. The Partnership for Children and Youth, a longtime member of CA3 led by Lady Jennifer of Peck, was called upon to lead the campaign and she assigned her most renowned policy warrior to the task, Jessica Gunderson the Tenacious. The gr...Read More

Part 1: The Great ASES Augmentation of 2017 – A Children’s Story

Gather around, children, and I’ll tell you a story. What kind of story, you ask? Is it a scary story? Is it a funny story? A magical story? No. It’s better than that. It’s the best kind of story there is. It’s a story about policy change. ASES to be exact. Our story begins way back in the year 2006. Do any of you remember that year? Some of you may have been quite young. A traveling minstrel named Justin Timberlake performed a song called SexyBack. Children were introduced to a delightful talkin...Read More

Summer Matters! Who Will You Invite? (CA Specific)

Today I had a peach for breakfast which means summer time!  My kids are 4 days from summer break. They are excited to sleep in for a week and NOT think about deadlines, papers, projects, tests.  But, they’ll start to get bored.  Luckily for them, they’ll be moving right into their next set of adventures and learning opportunities.  From rock climbing to animal camp to spy club – they’ll be stretching their brains and their legs all summer long.  Of course, every kid should have these opportuniti...Read More

Afterschool Programs: Expanding the Definition of Success

As a father of two girls ages 7 and 10, married to an amazing educator of over 20 years, I have a 360-degree perspective of the teaching and learning experience. As a matter of fact, my 4th grade daughter is my wife’s student. It’s a complete family affair. Most people I share that with have an initial reaction of concern. The most common questions are, “How is that working out for your daughter? Isn’t that weird for her? Does she feel challenged?” All these have me...Read More

Barbara Boxer Keynotes at BOOST Conference 2017

It was with great pleasure that we hosted BOOST Conference Keynote Speaker, Former Senator Barbara Boxer in 2017! BOOST Collaborative and Afterschool Alliance were privileged to honor Senator Barbara Boxer at the 2017 BOOST Conference in Palm Springs, CA. Jodi Grant, Executive Director, Afterschool Alliance, presented Boxer with an OSTI (Out of-School Time Innovations) Award on Wednesday, April 19th followed by a keynote address, audience Q & A, and book signing.        Barbara Boxer Bio A f...Read More