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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2020 – A year of opportunity. Now what?
An unprecedented year. How many times have we heard that phrase? A reflective sentiment for a global pandemic but also cause to acknowledge our diversity, ensure equity and to seek inclusivity individually and collectively. An unprecedented year, no doubt about it. TGR Foundation learned a lot about itself in 2020, as I am sure your organization did as well. This learning didn’t come about in a deliberate manner, rather as a result of realizing that the status quo is not an option. Youth are str...Read More
3 Family Engagement Resources to Try this Month
Community gatherings, potlucks, and school parties are great opportunities to re-engage the caregivers, older siblings, and families that your program supports year-round. These events, in addition to being fun and light-hearted, can build protective and supportive factors for families and children experiencing adversity. The benefit of out-of-school time goes beyond the social-emotional to the physical needs of families. According to the Afterschool Alliance, more than 4 in 5 parents in communi...Read More
Delivering On Mission – How To Determine Whether Your Organization Measures Up
It seems like nearly every conversation and strategy session that I am part of lately includes discussions about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI.) As I listen, read, and watch organizations grapple to embrace these values, I am compelled to look deeper and measure the impact of efforts on youth programs. When asked, most leaders point to policies that have been adopted but few share the difference that policy alone makes. At TGR Foundation – A Tiger Woods Charity, our staff meetings have tu...Read More
Collaboration, Gratitude and Birds (Yeah, Birds!)
As we enter the holiday season, I’m thankful to be coming up on my 10th year at the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. As Director of Community Partnerships, I have the unique pleasure of cultivating relationships to engage communities in promoting children’s health. For this article, I wanted to share three collaborations that I am particularly excited about – each with resources I hope you can use to bring wellness to life in out-of-school time while engaging families and empowering children...Read More
Not Your Mother’s Meeting (PT 2)
Welcome back to Part 2 of Not Your Mother’s Meeting! If you missed Part 1, click here to catch up! Breakfast Club Blogger @jillgordon provides excellent inclusionary meeting ideas in order to create more participation and engagement for your staff. Enjoy! Make the Meeting Participatory Gain greater participation by posing three questions or next steps to the meeting participants. For small group discussions, try using small dry erase boards to generate ideas and questions. They are ext...Read More
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. During the 2013-2014 school year, more than 1.3 million homeless children and youth were enrolled in pu...Read More
Arab Women Make a Charge into Engineering
In the face of strong headwinds… In Saudi Arabia, women can’t drive. In Lebanon, sexual harassment is legal. And even in the United Arab Emirates – relatively advanced on gender issues among predominantly Muslim countries – men can physically discipline their wives. Across all 22 states in the Arab world, women face legal and cultural obstacles unfamiliar to women in the United States. Arab Women Push Ahead One area, though, in which Arab women in fact face lesser obstacles and achieve at a high...Read More
How to Keep Applications from Keeping Kids Out
When I write a blog it’s usually when I’ve reached a point where I’ve figured something out, or at least enough about something to feel that I’m ready to share “what works.” This time I am trying something different. I am writing because I have a question that I don’t know the answer to and a challenge that I am trying to figure out. We all have to administer paperwork in our after-school programs. We need the families of our kids to complete application...Read More
My Why: Different Is OK
I grew up in a small town in Ohio in the 1960s and 70s, at a time and place where everyone strove to be the same. Everyone (and I mean everyone) had 2 parents, owned a modest home and went to church. But I was different. My father died after I was born, my Mom had a different last name from remarriage, and my two aunts (one of whom wasn’t actually related) helped raise me. I experienced great love as a child but there was an underlying sense that being different was somehow “bad.R...Read More
Research on Inclusion of Children with Special Needs in Out-of-School Time
“There is a critical need for afterschool programs that can receive and handle students with special needs. I believe that programs could be strengthened by providing training for caregivers in such areas as autism and ADHD, along with encouraging practices that would provide an appropriate adult-to-student ratio to enhance care options for students with disabilities.” Taking the Temperature of Afterschool, New Jersey School Age Care Coalition Although the Americans with Disabilities...Read More
Picking Teams Painlessly
Being the last one picked is just no fun. What if the last words you heard before you became a team member was “Alright, I guess we have to take you”? The first play hasn’t been made and already, you feel like a failure. For some students, the mere act of picking teams is so difficult they simply choose not to participate in physical activity, thus avoiding the stress. The emotional safety of our students is as essential as the physical safety and it can begin with the act of p...Read More
If I’d Only Known…
Have you ever had an “if only I’d known…” episode? This happened to me when I learned some simple ways I could have helped a hearing-impaired student join my YMCA afterschool program with much less stress and fuss—had I only known. Basically, this is what happened: In the fall of 1999, a father came to my office to register his son and his stepson for our afterschool program. He was newly married, had just moved to the area and had some difficulty completing all the neces...Read More