September 16, 2019

The start of a new program year is a good time to remind staff members, partners and volunteers of your program’s mission, goals and expectations. For starters, put your mission statement, goals and expectations in writing, and post them for everyone to see. Refer to them in meetings and discussions. Prompt others to reflect and act on the values these statements represent by asking questions like these:

• In what ways do our planned activities align with our program’s mission and goals? Do we need to make adjustments?
• What evidence do you see that we’re moving toward our goals? Are we getting the hoped-for results? How well are we following through on our plan? Do we need to make adjustments?
• Are we living up to the expectations we’ve set for ourselves and our program? What about our students and their families, our partners, and our volunteers? Do we need to make adjustments?

Notice that each prompt ends with a question about whether you need to change some aspect of your approach (such as planning, implementation or behaviors). That’s important because, despite our best intentions, it’s human nature to fall back into old patterns and go with the flow.

Remind everyone that you’re all in the same program boat and aiming for the same goals. Encourage one another to fight the prevailing winds by focusing on your goals, implementing your program as planned and evaluating your progress. Invite everyone on your team to suggest changes anytime they think the “program boat” seems to be drifting off course.

When you fight the prevailing winds, you’re fighting for the success of the students and families you serve!

 

August 9, 2019

Did you ever wonder why there are so many idioms around sound financial decisions? “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” “A penny saved is a penny earned.” For generations, parents have talked about money when passing along life’s wisdom. But our complex world has moved past simple rhymes.

Your 21^st CCLC parents may envision their children becoming first-generation college graduates, or simply fitting in after arriving here from another country. They understand the importance of planning, are dedicated to their children’s futures and know that money talks. Unfortunately, common sense may not be enough to navigate modern-day financial decisions and talk back. 

The Y4Y Building Financial Literacy Click & Go is a great resource for you to help children and families get to know the basics outlined through an international effort to improve personal financial literacy. Many states now include financial literacy in learning standards and curriculum. The Y4Y Financial Literacy Standards Overview and Crosswalk tool can be a guide for building these crucial concepts and life skills into your program as you support multiple academic disciplines. Adult financial literacy courses offer a perfect opportunity to engage parents. You can invite in-depth conversations around how to make smart financial decisions in a notoriously complex arena. Be sure to check out Y4Y’s Evaluating Financial Literacy Resources to become confident about sharing the right information.

“Money talks” just means that money makes things happen. Even if they’re not tomorrow’s Rockefellers, citizens who understand basic financial concepts — earning income, spending, credit and debt, saving and investing, and protecting and insuring — are better poised to participate in personal and public financial decisions. Give your families that voice to talk back.

 

August 9, 2019

Summer is the season for veteran and new grantees alike to ascend to 30,000 feet and take a broad view of their programs. On the heels of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2019 21^st CCLC Summer Symposium, where leaders from 50 states gathered to move this exciting profession forward, here are “big picture” questions for all grantees to address:

Does your program vision statement reflect the sharpening focus on social and emotional learning? Social and emotional learning and building positivity among youth are high-priority areas for many 21^st CCLC programs. How might a subtle revisiting of your vision statement trickle down to other components of program management?

Is collaboration the heart and soul of your program? You value the voices of your community partners and stakeholders at the planning table, but does your program provide students with ample opportunities to practice collaboration? The ability to collaborate with others is increasingly regarded as a valuable tool for professional success. How can you accommodate this skill-building priority?

Are you an experienced grantee starting a new program? You know better than most that out-of-school time programming is growing and evolving as a professional field. Refresh yourself on managing a 21^st CCLC program from the ground up, and catch up on the latest regulations and wisdom around successful programs by attending the New Leaders Virtual Academy described below.

Are you a new grantee who’s worried about the deafening silence at 30,000 feet? Y4Y has a wealth of resources to help you maintain radio contact with experienced peers. Beginning August 13,  the New Leaders Virtual Academy will offer a live series of five interactive webinars to walk you through the crucial steps of program development, breaking down each step into manageable tasks. A certificate of completion for the Academy will be offered to those who attend the series. More important, you’ll emerge with a road map of available resources, connections to veteran professionals in the field, answers to your burning questions, and, best of all, companionship with fellow newcomers on the “new grantee” journey.

Whether or not you participate in the Academy, you can begin orienting yourself with the basics anytime. Budget three to four hours to take the Y4Y Introduction to Managing Your 21^st CCLC Program course and explore some of its tools, like the Project Management Graphic Organizer and Managing Your 21^st CCLC Program Diagram. If you don’t have a management background, these resources will give you a foundation in standard project management processes and help you manage critical tasks relevant to 21^st CCLC programs. You can also review the 2018 Y4Y Virtual Institute for New 21^st CCLC Grantees. This series of archived webinars is a great primer. Rest assured that the 2019 Academy sessions will be archived on the Y4Y website this fall.

Make Y4Y your partner in learning!

 

August 9, 2019

Experts agree that heeding student voice can help out-of-school time programs engage students and help them grow academically, socially and emotionally. Sometimes, though, when the defining characteristic of your program seems to be noise, you might think you have more student voice than you can handle! How can you be sure you get it right? Here are some quick tips and Y4Y tools.

Engage Students in Program Decisions

Consider these questions. If you can’t answer “yes,” decide what actions you need to take:

• Are students represented on your program planning team?
• When your team starts to plan for the next program term, are all students included in a goal-setting activity or discussion?
• When your team reflects on results at the end of a program term, are students included, too?

Also consider this:

• Who thinks about program culture and climate, and sets norms for behavior — staff alone, or do students contribute?

Involving students in decisions helps give them a sense of ownership in program activities and supports engagement. Equally important, it equips young people with important skills like collaboration, communication, caring and reflection.

Do Formal and Informal Observations

The next time you’re surrounded by students in your program space, conduct an informal observation: Close your eyes and listen.

• Maybe you’ll hear comments like this: Wow! I get it! Cool! Can we do that again? I want to try that, too.
• Or, maybe you’ll hear this: Go away, I’m doing this. Get somebody else to hang with. Do I have to do that now?

This type of quick, informal check can tell you how things are going in the moment, so you can act immediately if students and colleagues need help to find their focus.

To capture information for designing an effective schedule and engaging activities, use a formal observation tool. Y4Y’s Observation Checklist will help you consider staff and student engagement, fidelity of implementation, and the status of the physical environment. The data you gather can help with intentional design of student activities and staff professional learning events.

Conduct Surveys and Use the Results

Want to know how students and families feel about your program, and how you can do things differently or better? Surveys offer a quick, anonymous way for audiences to tell you what they think. Here are some Y4Y survey tools you can use:

• Elementary Student Interest Survey and Secondary Student Interest Survey. These tools provide direct feedback and suggestions from students.
• Family Engagement Survey and Family Satisfaction Survey. Use these tools to get family perspectives on what students and adults want, and how family members perceive the value and climate of your program.

When you ask others to respond to a survey, be prepared to react in turn. You won’t get future feedback if you ignore what respondents tell you now. After you analyze the combined data, be sure to share the results. You can post charts on the wall, include numbers in the electronic newsletter, or announce results through social media. Present the data beside plans for future activities to demonstrate how audience input helps to shape your program.

 

July 16, 2019

This quote is often attributed to former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She was known for her commitment to human and civil rights, and she often advocated for the youth of this country. Parents and out-of-school time professionals share the beautiful dream of giving young people a thriving future. Working toward that goal together can improve the chances for success.

Since the 1960s, research has shown that students can reap significant benefits from family involvement in their education. This is especially true for disadvantaged students. Among 21^st CCLC families, only 50 percent of parents have completed high school, and 90 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs. What does this mean for your family engagement efforts? First, it means it’s important and worth doing! Second, it means you may need to challenge any assumptions that low levels of family engagement mean disinterest or “lack of commitment” on their part. You’ll need to consider and address such issues as the transportation and scheduling difficulties families at lower socioeconomic levels may face as they work to put food on the table.

Your program staff can build their knowledge with Understanding and Overcoming Challenges to Family Engagement, a tool in the updated Y4Y Family Engagement course. A helpful tool for making a creative plan is Y4Y’s Supporting and Engaging Families. If your family engagement efforts fall short of your expectations, take heart. Emerging wisdom surrounding success cites the importance of learning from failure, whether your own or someone else’s. In fact, “automatic success” doesn’t necessarily give you layers of information you can use to advance your expertise. It sounds like a cliché, but failures truly are learning opportunities. You and your staff can adopt this positive approach by conducting the Family Engagement Training to Go with a critical eye toward learning opportunities.

As Mrs. Roosevelt’s contemporary, Humphrey Bogart, might say, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

For additional information on the benefits of family engagement, and ways you and your staff can forge family partnerships, visit the updated Y4Y course on Family Engagement.