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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How Youth Development Programs Have Responded to COVID-19: Creativity, Innovation, and Doing What’s Brave and What’s Right
Defined by lockdowns, face masks, and video conferences, the COVID-19 global pandemic caused the world to shift to an era of physical distancing, at-home and on-line learning, shuttered community organizations, and the possibility of stifled creation for young people around the world. Recently a colleague shared an essay, “A Message of Hope,” by English author Neil Gaiman, in which he describes the unusual moment of panic, disruption, grief, and pause we are collectively experiencing as the COVI...Read More
Reliving The Past (In A Good Way)!
If you’ve ever listened to the Hamilton musical soundtrack, or you had the unique opportunity of seeing the production for yourself, one of their best songs is Yorktown. It describes the battle of Yorktown in 1781; the battle that had the British wave the white flag in surrender! A line in the song reads, “And so the American experiment begins, with my friends all scattered to the winds…” In the Summer of 2016, I was playing that song multiple times a day. Why? As a member of the After-Sch...Read More
How Do You Provide Youth Voice and Choice?
When program providers in the Expanded Learning Field are asked if they incorporate youth voice and choice, the answer is often a quick “yes” or “of course.” This blog is about digging a little deeper into what incorporating youth voice and choice can look like, beyond some of the traditional practices. I am a firm believer that our field of work is all about providing services and learning environments where young people feel both physically and emotionally safe. And in turn, youth are more li...Read More
Hate Your Data? There’s A Toolkit For That!
We’ve all been there. Frustrated with maintaining 15 different spreadsheets, 30-word documents, and 19 Survey Monkey Surveys, a nonprofit leader says, “Enough! Let’s just get a database.” Yes! Finally! A centralized place for all the program’s data will help the team serve clients better and make reporting to funders a breeze. Joy and excitement fade to sadness as the team struggles to fathom how to go about getting a new database, much less implementing one. And the stakes couldn’t be higher: n...Read More
After-school Programs: “It’s probably time for an upgrade.”
OK, so let me tell you about last weekend. The refrigerator that my wife, Jan, and I inherited from the previous owners of our home is over ten years old. It’s a good model and it’s served us very well, but during the last year we’ve had to repair it three times. On the most recent occasion, the technician gave us the gloomy prognosis – “It’s probably time for an upgrade.” The news was unwelcome but inevitable. So, we found a good deal on a new one and made ar...Read More