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!

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Author: Daniel W. Hatcher

Creating a More Connected World Through Local Agriculture: 9 Voices

Imagine if we, above all else, prioritized creating a more connected world. If we blend and integrate our passions, what innovations will we discover? What challenges would we overcome? To celebrate National Nutrition Month, this article explores how local agriculture can help foster social connectedness. To do this, I spoke with youth and adults representing urban and rural communities, non-profi...

Designing Welcoming and Healthy Environments: 4 Activities

Designing welcoming environments for children and families has never been more important. Let’s look at some statistics and then talk action! Recent research shows that high school students report feeling “tired, stressed and bored” during the school day. 28% of U.S. students in grades 6–12 have experienced bullying and children with disabilities experience an increased risk. Dur...

Tips from 7 Experts on School-Community Collaboration

This month the Alliance for a Healthier Generation is celebrating America’s Healthiest Schools. Schools recognized by the Alliance have met stringent guidelines for serving healthier meals and snacks, getting all children active and empowering school leaders to become healthy role models. Schools are essential partners for out-of-school time organizations. According to the Afterschool Allian...

The Role of Mentorship: Field Leader Spotlight

This blog was originally posted on the Alliance for a Healthier Generation Healthy Out-of-School Time Blog. The Best Out-of-School Time (BOOST) Conference is coming up, and this year I’m honored to once again co-present with Bruno Marchesi, Chief Operating Officer at the Center for Collaborative Solutions. We will be discussing Local, State, and National Perspectives on the Healthy Afterscho...

9 Tips from Out-of-School Experts to Build #PartnershipsWithPurpose

Call it what you want – partnerships, collaborations, collective impact – whatever your terminology of choice, partnerships with purpose are essential for any out-of-school program to be successful. Resources are tight, time is limited and staff turnover is a reality. So how do you build impactful partnerships? Here are 9 tips from key out-of-school time leaders. Use the hashtag #Partn...

Leveraging Wellness to Help Children Think Global and Act Local

Although the facts are alarming, conveying the importance of wellness to children can be challenging. Childhood obesity has almost tripled in children and adolescents in the past 30 years and today approximately one out of three children and adolescents in the United States is overweight or obese. Even more alarming, there are significant racial and ethnic disparities in obesity prevalence among U...

3 Ideas to Develop Healthy and Active Role Models this Fall

Our last blog featured 6 Ideas to Make Your Next Staff Meeting Fun and Healthy this Summer. Did you try one of them? Maybe you made “Silly Water” for a retreat or added some physical activity to your regular staff meeting. Building on those tips, here are a few ideas to help you continue to develop healthy and active role models this fall. Let us know how it goes by tweeting to @Health...

6 Ideas to Make Your Next Staff Meeting Fun and Healthy This Summer

Summer is just around the corner and it is typically a time for more casual meetings, new volunteers and summer interns. Motivate your staff and volunteers by trying these ideas for making staff meetings and events fun and healthy. Included are some great ideas from Alliance for a Healthier Generation friends too! Let us know how it goes and tweet us your ideas using @HealthierGen. 1. Activity kee...

Simple Ideas for Making Your Out-of-School Program Healthier

Out-of-school time providers have the unique opportunity to create environments where healthy eating and physical activity are encouraged. It doesn’t matter if you’re a before school program, an afterschool program, a summer program, a scouting organization, or a sports team you play a meaningful role in empowering youth to eat better and move more. As you think about your goals for 20...