January 20, 2022

The students in your program are not likely to be “spoiled” at home, though you might find they’re occasionally “indulged” by parents wishing they could make their lives just a little easier. With a quick review of the milestone matrix prepared by Y4Y to accompany the new Stages of Child and Adolescent Development course, you’ll gain some basic ideas of what students need most from the adults in their lives at various stages of development. Use these tips and additional Y4Y tools to explore those areas where your program can offer students the royal treatment by supporting healthy growth and development for the best possible life outcomes.

Students ages 4-6 are improving their fine motor skills, are beginning to understand cause and effect, and want to show off their skills. Ways to support these areas of development include

• Establishing a program space rich with materials that “grow with” young peoples’ motor development, like crayons and paint brushes in different sizes.
• Asking many leading questions, even ones that are not lesson-oriented, like “What could happen if I don’t tie this long shoelace of mine?”
• Creating opportunities to show off talents great and small, reminding students to encourage one another and not always take a competitive position. For example: a hopping-on-one-foot “break” (not contest) could be a nice way to take a breather from academics. You can call out different students for how creatively or slowly they hop as well as the student who hops the longest.

Check out Y4Y’s Facilitating Positive Youth Development in Summer Learning Training to Go.

Students ages 6-9 may become more physical in their games, are beginning to read to learn once they’ve learned to read, and are beginning to identify their own personality traits in comparison with others. Ways to support these areas of development include

• Offering a variety of options during outdoor playtime with established safety ground rules and the opportunity to play contact sports to the degree all participants are comfortable.
• Coordinating with school partners like the librarian to offer interesting reading material that supports academics. Offer “fact treasure hunt” activities.
• Providing daily reflection opportunities. Choose an adjective each day like “confident,” “strong,” or “smart,” and ask students to remember a moment in their day when they saw this trait in themselves.

Check out Y4Y’s Effective Questioning literacy tool and Best Practices for Mindfulness tool.

Students ages 9-12 are developing faster reaction times, experiencing a rise in self-esteem as interest-based peer groups emerge, and are increasingly able to monitor and direct their own progress toward a long-term goal. Ways to support these areas of development include

• Interspersing “rapid-fire” quizzing as a study strategy for students who enjoy that activity and are not stressed by it.
• Offering icebreaker activities throughout the year to help students continually look for things in common with all their peers. Challenge them to make “unexpected” connections.
• Allowing long-term group projects to be centered on student voice and choice and student-driven goal setting.

Check out Y4Y’s Icebreaker Activities and Student Goal Setting and Reflection – Middle School.

Students ages 12-15 are completing puberty, growing critical of adults and siblings, may thrive on conflict ranging from intellectual debate to serious rebellion, and becoming anxious for the future. Ways to support these areas of development include

• Firmly establishing your program as a safe space for different opinions and life experiences while fostering constructive debates about society and the world around your students.
• Forging deeper trust and connections with students while maintaining healthy boundaries between adults and teens.
• Offering a wide variety of career pathway activities to broaden students’ horizons and help them to envision themselves as successful adults.

Check out Y4Y’s Incorporating Multiple Viewpoints Checklist and Career Pathways Activity Design Guidebook.

Students ages 15-18 are physically mature or nearly so, likely to be feeling strong emotions like anger or loneliness even if those emotions aren’t always obvious, and are increasingly able to take everything they’ve learned to make decisions about their future. Ways to support these areas of development include

• Encouraging initiative and leadership skills in your program and beyond.
• Continuing to educate students on all aspects of lifelong health and wellness, centered on better understanding themselves and their own needs, and making good choices in much more “adult” arenas.
• Offering guidance through the practical aspects of career pathway choices such as test prep, college or apprenticeship applications, or speaking with military recruiters.

Check out Y4Y’s Youth Leadership Roles tool and Student Self-Assessment: Late Adolescence.

No Such Thing as a Spoiled Child

It may be decades before we can successfully remove the term “spoiled” from the long list of adjectives we might use for children. But as a youth worker, you understand better than most that term simply means that expectations on a child do not match what is developmentally appropriate for them. Often you are aware of why this might be the case for the students in your program. But raising these princes and princesses to be their best selves is an honor you share with their parents, so remember to team up with tools like Y4Y’s Sample Caregiver Survey and Partnering With Families for Healthy Child Development Training to Go.

One day your students will rule the world. We’ll all benefit from them ruling wisely.

January 18, 2022

The pandemic may have left program leaders and staff feeling like they were isolated in an ivory tower, removed from their students and peers. But great lessons were learned about connecting virtually around the globe. Check out Y4Y’s new course, which shares both cautions and benefits to ensure that technology continues to serve your program faithfully.

The host, Sky, will guide you through this video game-themed professional development experience that will help you explore ways to use virtual tools and interactions in your program, and use technology to your advantage in achieving both program and professional development goals. After you’ve completed the Implementation Strategies section, you’ll earn an Advanced Level certificate and be able to

• Demonstrate more comfort and confidence in using virtual tools purposefully.
• Select technology, equity, relationship and personalization strategies to increase learning and engagement.
• Make strategic choices about intentional use of technology for in-person, hybrid and fully virtual settings with students, families, staff and partners.
• Review and revise the program activity schedule to move seamlessly to virtual programming when necessary.

The course begins by establishing important terminology and “basic training” central to becoming a tech-wise 21^st CCLC professional. Next, you'll gain tech power, or the ability to select and use virtual tools strategically to achieve a specific goal by evaluating several factors. You’re now ready for your missions of

• Program management – with attention to budgeting and planning considerations outlined in the course
• Engaging stakeholders – navigating how to communicate, coordinate, support and strengthen your school-day, family and community partnerships around virtual learning
• Supporting and developing staff – for technology comfort without overkill
• Expanding student opportunities and support – to conquer challenges in a hybrid or virtual learning environment
• Engaging families ­­– collecting virtual strategies to get families involved in their students’ and their own expanded learning
• Implementing with fidelity – collecting and using data to continuously improve your virtual programming

Program leaders can “level up” with a Leadership Level certificate when you engage with the Coaching My Staff section of the course. In less than an hour, you’ll gain strategies for decision making around the kind of training to provide so staff are ready to use technology to engage students in person, in a hybrid setting or in a fully virtual program.

Technology isn’t just the wave of the future; it’s the wave of the present. Your students and staff will be more flexible and effective in your program with strategies for embracing the virtual edge. So, instead of letting virtual learning lock you in an ivory tower, help everyone to see how it can actually connect you in new and exciting ways, both within your program and around the globe!

January 18, 2022

Y4Y is excited to roll out a new course on fiscal management of 21^st CCLC programs. The people have spoken: Understanding the nuances of spending and reporting in your kingdom is a challenge. This course will walk you through protocol to ensure that your program performs to the letter of government decree and offer suggestions for a long-sustained reign.

Upon completion of the Implementation Strategies section, faithful servant to the crown, Lewis, assures learners of their earning an Advanced Level certificate and the ability to

• Describe the regulations and requirements associated with a 21^st CCLC program budget.
• Follow cost principles that need to be applied when managing a budget.
• Develop a program budget.
• Monitor and control a program budget.

Just a few examples of further breakdown of the fiscal responsibilities that Lewis addresses throughout this course include these:

• Consideration of specific staff positions required by your state, or included in your grant
• The scope of your program, including number of sites, students served and days in operation
• Materials needed like computers, books, software and makerspace goods
• Coordinating with, and duplicating efforts of, an accounting department to ensure accuracy of drawing down funds
• Maintaining consistent internal reporting practices

While the Fiscal Management course is designed with program leaders in mind, straightforward language, colorful images and a logical process help the learner understand even the most complicated aspects of 21^st CCLC finances. You’ll dig deep on each of the below steps and budget line items to be able to plan and implement your own kingdom-wide process for fiscal management:

• Taking charge of oversight
• Setting your budget (and being specific about it!)
• Understanding other operating expenses
• Breaking down supply challenges
• Contractual expenses such as evaluator, vendors, partners or busing
• Planning capital outlay for larger-ticket items
• Understanding indirect costs
• Reconciling your budget
• Reporting on and amending your costs and budget
• Closing out your budget
• Sustaining your program

Learners wishing to earn a Leadership Level certificate can also engage in the Coaching My Staff section of the course. While a big-picture understanding of 21^st CCLC fiscal management is the responsibility of leadership, there are many elements of the budget that all staff need to be brought in for. The Coaching My Staff section will help you parse those out, and offers tools for bringing staff up to speed:

• Train and support staff to implement fiscal management cost principles. 
• Select Y4Y trainings that are the most important for your staff.
• Assess staff readiness to implement fiscal practices and procedures for a 21^st CCLC program. 

It’s not slick or cutting edge. You may be asking yourself how training in fiscal management impacts the students in your program. But the truth is, gaining comprehensive knowledge of all the moving parts of your 21^st CCLC budget will give your program a more solid and much-needed foundation than many other trainings. While queen Marie Antoinette never actually said “Let them eat cake” as the legend claimed, one lesson from that legend is how you can’t have dessert without dinner first. And you can’t have a rich academic program without reliable fiscal management.

January 4, 2022

Accelerated learning rules all during this academic year. Place your students on their right-sized thrones with tips from Y4Y’s new Click & Go on homework and tutoring sessions and Human Resources course. But partnering with the school day doesn’t end with academics! Your program also has agency to address student health and wellness as their school days are jam-packed with other duties. Ensure that your palace of learning is perfectly appointed for whole child support for the rest of the program year with help from Y4Y’s crown jewels.

The Data in Your Kingdom

Updated Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) measures for 21^st CCLC have you keenly aware of the importance of data in your community. You can glimpse those updated measures in Chapter 2 of the Introduction Section of Y4Y’s updated course, Introduction to 21^st CCLCs. The data you captured at the outset of this program year should be informing how you structure your homework and tutoring time to be sure you support the school day with accelerated learning. But some midyear checks might have you considering a little restructuring. Go back to the Y4Y Five Key Strategies tool and Homework Help vs. Tutoring tool for the basics, beginning with what your staffing should look like.

The Right Hand of the Throne

If you’re going to place each student on their right-sized throne of learning, the staff member who sits by their side will make all the difference. Taking tips from the mini-lesson on what your staff numbers and qualifications need to be, consult the Y4Y Human Resources Planning Checklist for guidance on possible midyear hires, or better still, your summer program planning. If you have new leaders who have their own learning curves to accelerate, the staff training on conducting an effective interview is a great place to start. In 21^st CCLC programs, you can never lower those shields against turnover! Also train leaders on employee retention to ensure continuity for student learning.

A Royal Wedding

The school-day partnership your 21^st CCLC program enjoys is always going to be at the heart of your program’s success. You’ll need to satisfy those student data needs, communicate about homework, and access school-day staff and academic resources when you consider that program success is measured, in part, by students’ school-day success. Y4Y offers many more tools to build and strengthen this relationship, whether you’re part of the fabric of your school district or a community-based organization still proving your worth. Remember: In out-of-school time, you have the unique opportunity to support other aspects of student success. But it can’t be done alone. Partner on student health and wellness and understand everyone’s roles and responsibilities as you align social and emotional learning goals with school-day initiatives.

Her/His Royal Highness

The students in your program may not have many opportunities in life to feel special. At the end of the day, if your 21^st CCLC program accomplishes nothing else, building self-esteem, contributing to healthy growth and development, and helping students see that you will always treat them with the dignity of royalty can still make or break the long-term outcomes for these children you cherish. Y4Y offers many resources to help you implement these less tangible goals, including a new course on stages of child and adolescent development, which includes training on understanding development and connecting with children. Plus, the course on creating a positive learning environment includes quick tips for implementing basic strategies.

Beloved Princess Diana said of her role in the royal family, “Nothing brings me more happiness than to help the most vulnerable people in society.” Never forget that you are royalty, too. Your place in your 21^st CCLC program may carry great duty, but it also offers great rewards.