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 BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is Brain Food for In and Out-of-School Time Leaders!
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What Drives your After-School Program?
This new year of 2014 marks eight years of working in out-of-school (OST) time programs for me. While my passion for youth work has not changed over the course of that time, my approach to youth work has been profoundly shaped. I started my work in OST programs in a vulnerable neighborhood outside Philadelphia. I was a young college student looking for academic credit by putting in my time with at-risk youth. I loved this program and I loved the people I worked with. All of us had a passion and ...Read More
21st Century Wake Up Call: 3 Hot Tips on Social Media for #YouthServing Organizations
What’s trending? Do you hashtag your posts? What kinds of photos should you use to show your audience your extraordinary program? Have you used social media to raise money for your program? Are you using the online platforms to raise awareness about the quality of programs? Don’t think you need to? Well, it’s time for a 21st Century wake-up call. IT’S FREE ADVERTISING after all! I am passionate about the power of social media. In my coaching and travel experiences I have ...Read More
No Children Left on Their Behinds
One of the powers of play is that it gets us to exercise our bodies as well as our minds. – David Elkind Childhood is becoming increasingly sedentary. Tragically, many afterschool programs are becoming increasingly sedentary as well. Today, childhood is spent mostly indoors, watching television, playing video games and working the Internet. When children do go outside, it tends to be for scheduled events – soccer camp or a fishing derby – held under the watch of adults. In a typical ...Read More
Join the Discussion – Proposed Changes to 21st Century Community Learning Center Funding
As many of you have heard, the Partnership for Children & Youth (PCY) is putting together state legislation to make improvements to the 21st Century Community Learning Center program. The proposed changes are based on aspects of the current law that we’ve heard for many years create barriers or are difficult to administer in the field. Our goal is to make the funding easier to apply for and implement, and to be strategic about how we use federal funding in concert with our state after ...Read More
Is Your Program Instagram Worthy?
“If the young are not initiated into the village, they will burn it down just to feel its warmth.” – African Proverb In traditional societies, parents would send their children outside of their immediate family to an ‘elder’ in order for the child to begin a rites of passage. This rites of passage gave them the opportunity to learn the social norms and mores and join the larger community. Our programs, in many ways, have become this community of ‘elders’...Read More
Checking-In with Your Students: Using the Arts to Open the Door to Communication
Imagine with me, that 13-year-old Steven walks through the door of your out of school time program. His thick eyebrows are furrowed over low eyes. His lips twisted into a sullen scowl. You excitedly greet him at the door with an extended hand. “Good Afternoon, Steven!!” He mumbles an unenthusiastic “Hi”, limply shakes your extended hand, and walks away with hunched over shoulders. Clearly, something is up. Now, of course, you can check in with Steven by asking him if he i...Read More
Bullying and Suicide: What’s the Real Story?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last several years, you are well aware of the issue of bullying in schools. It seems there isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t catch a news story, receive a flyer for training, or get a call from a school about this growing problem. We all know media is not always the best at portraying the most accurate picture of a problem and can often times even lead to a false sense of urgency. However, recently there has been talk about bu...Read More
Young People in Afterschool Programs Leading Efforts to Improve School Attendance
We often teach our young people to listen to their elders because they are the voices of experience and wisdom. But many times, the best way to get through to a young person is through another young person. With this in mind, it is especially encouraging to be able to recognize two Baltimore-based youth organizations – Wide Angle Youth Media and the Baltimore Urban Debate League – that are engaging young people in citywide efforts to spread the message about the value of attending school regul...Read More
Valuing Children’s Artwork
“Mommy, my art is in the trash!” said 4-year-old Noah with shock and dismay. This is how Board Supervisor, Janice Rutherford, opened her keynote speech to a large group of educators. She held up her son’s paper plate painting and told us how distressed he was when he found it in the trashcan at home. How could this have happened? Surely it must be a mistake because who would throw away original artwork? I was completely amused by her poignant message as this Education Board Mem...Read More
In Serious Need of Fun
Life should be lived as play. Summarized from Plato’s Laws, should be the mantra of every adult providing out-of-school time care for children. Childhood passes swiftly, and even more so as our nation careens down the path of testing and accountability. With Americans living on average into their 70s and 80s, the time one can spend playing without guilt passes in a blink. The childhood experience is missing fun for fun’s sake. Free play has been replaced with purposeful skill buildin...Read More
Revising Beyond the Bell – A Few Takeaways
I began my career as a consultant and trainer for afterschool and expanded learning programs at PlusTime New Hampshire. While I was there, I had one resource I would turn to time and time again to support the programs I was working with: the Beyond the Bell Toolkit. As a consultant dealing with a variety of program needs and questions, the Toolkit was a great resource for me because there were so many tools available on topics ranging from management to evaluation to program design and delivery....Read More
Highlights of a Summer Road Show
Every year, the Summer Matters campaign tours summer programs across the state from Glenn County down to San Bernardino and over to Fresno. The programs, supported by local technical assistance providers, have been working intentionally to improve their quality for the past 4 years. What we’re seeing is a real testament to the ingenuity and determination of our field, and to the power of the cycle of quality improvement. Here are a few of the highlights: At the Whittier City School Distric...Read More