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!

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5 Simple Ways Youth Can Inspire Change

This blog was originally published on August 27, 2019. Youth voice in the advocacy space is still timely and relevant so we wanted to share it again. Enjoy!  I believe in the power of youth voice because youth can inspire change. Young people are experts on their own lives, and their lived experiences should be heard and used to advocate for change. We live in a time where advocacy and grassroots movements have been instrumental in highlighting social issues and bringing about positive change. W...Read More

Being a Change Agent in Quarantine

With both in-person schooling and programs moving online, I didn’t have the resources at the time to transition to fully relying on digital platforms. I had adapted to having hands-on experiences and collaborating with other students in the same space to advocate for student voice and BIPOC communities. As a Gem Project fellow, I was really worried about how engaging the program could still be and how much I’d be learning about youth activism if our resources are limited. But The Gem Project’s e...Read More

Their Lives Changed Overnight… How Youth Responded

Almost overnight, the lives of high school students all over the country, along with their teachers, mentors, and group facilitators, were completely disrupted. At a time where spring break, prom, and graduation was on the mind of many students, suddenly they found themselves wondering if they would return to school at all, or whether the abrupt ‘goodbyes’ were the last memory they would carry with them. Later in the spring, when racial tensions increased nationwide, students found themselves ag...Read More

Boldly Digging into Diversity

In a large urban district like Metro Nashville Public Schools, my biracial children felt rather comfortable. There were other brown faces in their classrooms. For the most part, they didn’t stand out as “different.” Of course, they did encounter the occasional question about ethnicity from a peer. One of my sons even had a white teacher treat him unfairly because of the color of his skin. But, for the most part, my kids felt like they belonged in their diverse schools. When my kids transferred t...Read More

BOOST Stands in Solidarity with Black Communities

TEAMBOOST stands in solidarity with our Black colleagues, students, families, and communities. We love you. We support you. We are here for you. Today, we are recommitting to our fight for racial justice, inclusion, and equity. Going forward, we will continue to take meaningful action toward positive change.Over the years, we’ve sought out powerful Black voices to educate, inspire, and uplift the BOOST community. We hope you’ll take some time to listen, read, and continue your anti-r...Read More

Flipping The Script: Laying The Groundwork For A More Powerful Advocacy Force

In our work, there are always limited resources. This can, unfortunately, put those working toward the same goals at odds—competing for members, for donors, for grants, or for state or federal funding. This is the case for many nonprofits and afterschool providers and has been the plight of afterschool and child care advocates for years. The constant need for increased public investment has led our two groups to sometimes feel as though a win for one is an automatic loss for the other. This has ...Read More

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

3 Easy Ways To Be A Changemaker! It Makes Cents

Editor’s Note: Welcome new Breakfast Club Blogger, Femi Vance, Researcher at American Institutes for Research and President of the Board of Directors for CAL SAC. Femi is a youth development expert with over 15 years of experience. She currently works as a researcher and trainer focused on improving after-school program quality and outcomes, and helping OST professionals. She has a Ph.D. in Education from UC Irvine specializing in after-school development, and an M.P.P. from Johns Hopkins....Read More

Webinar 2: How to Inspire Youth Giving

Editor’s Note: A special thank you to author @jillgordon for sharing the second of four of Youth Philanthropy’s webinar series. Today’s post focuses on youth philanthropy models that can be implemented in your program too!  Click on the webinar link below “How to Inspire Youth Giving” for the full program.  And, keep your eyes open in March for the next special webinar from Youth Philanthropy Initiative of Indiana. The Youth Philanthropy Initiative of Indiana (YPII) created a 4...Read More

Engaging Young People in Creative Placemaking: Part Two

Welcome back to this two-part blog series as we unpack what creative placemaking looks like in community development and how we can use it as a tool to empower youth in being key players in their local public spaces. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to take a few minutes to read Engaging Young People in Creative Placemaking: Part One, published February 20, 2018 right here on the BOOST Cafe Breakfast Club Blog.  Using Creative Placemaking in Youth Program: Examples It may feel daunt...Read More

Preserving Programs for Kids by Going Local

At the end of 2017, the nation is on the verge of one of the largest federal tax cuts in modern times. And while some in Washington celebrate, for others the Congressional tax deal holds the specter of devastating cuts to social services and education programs that rely on federal dollars. Some are bracing for budgets squeezed dry, and more and more programs, already run on a shoestring, hobbled to ineffectiveness or nonexistence. Knowing what’s at stake, people in our line of work don’t typical...Read More