October 10, 2019

The Y4Y team recently caught up with Emanuel Betz, 21^st CCLC state coordinator for Vermont, to ask some questions about partnerships in his state.

What does the ground floor of your 21^st CCLC partnership development look like?

First, for key partners, let’s name three pillars to call the foundation, or ground floor: the school, community and family. 

In many ways, the core “partner” in the 21^st CCLC-funded project is the school. Every project needs a school (assuming it is ready and has the capacity), its resources, leaders and teachers who “get it” to actively contribute to the vision. If the school, leaders or system are not integrated with the project over time, it is fair to say it may not even work, and certainly may not be sustained or as effective as it should be. This would be especially true in a small rural community.

The second pillar consists of community contributors. These can take many forms in size and scope, including organizational or individual commitments. No contribution or activity is too small. These often manifest themselves effectively as wonderfully diverse learning opportunities, be it in STEM, the environment, in the arts and movement, or in content areas where the school may not have expertise. Look for successful organizations to support new ideas and professional development and funding.

The third pillar would be family, whether it’s just getting their kids to the program because they know they need and want it, or at greater levels, such as attending events and programming. Family members are often key stakeholders, supporters or leaders.

What are the key elements you’ve found lead to the most successful and long-lasting partnerships?

First, I think the personality and leadership skill sets of the program leaders are most important. A charismatic leader who is an effective communicator goes places quickly. Second, people who know the served community intimately have an edge on navigating challenges, maintaining relationships and building quality over time. Third, leadership retention and consistency over time provide a platform for consistent growth, especially in tandem with the above.

What are ways to expand community partners into sustainable funding sources? How else do you recommend pursuing sustainable funding after grants expire?  

I don’t think viewing partners as sustainable funding sources really works. Any partnership can be developed and contribute to quality over time. What works is a collaborative enterprise, and the results that come may not be foreseen. For example, one arts partnership I had as a program director came out of the blue with a $30,000 grant to expand our program approach. That was an unexpected but cool conversation! I think the key element to creating sustainable funding sources is executing high-quality programs that the community values because they are good and serve kids well. That is job one. Money should and will follow high-quality programming. 

I think, too, it is important to identify a partner as different from a contractor. A partner is an organization, individual or group that shares ownership of the application (program) and its intended results. Partners may assume responsibility, manage, and contribute or create activities that support the vision.

Perhaps a starting point could be using a self-assessment tool to investigate possibilities. In Vermont, after Year 5, we have a goal that at least 50% of funding would come from five different sources. There are some proven key strategies that explicitly support sustainability and can be used to build a plan that keys off of quality. This sustainability self-assessment for afterschool programs is based on the one we use in Vermont.

October 10, 2019

“Before you become a leader, success is all about growing yourself. After you become a leader, success is about growing others.” As a 21^st CCLC program leader, you no doubt see the wisdom in this insight from business leader Jack Welch. After all, supporting and acknowledging your team’s professional growth benefits your program as well as individual staff members. It also helps you retain staff because it shows you’re invested in their success and treasure their contributions.

Y4Y’s new online Human Resources course walks you through nine key strategies you can use to manage and develop your staff. It covers everything from hiring to training to building a positive work environment to managing staff performance. Here are three tips you can start using right away:

Help staff members find their sweet spot. If Natalie loves to plan, enlist her to help plan the next Family Literacy Event or Citizen Science Experience. Once she’s had success, provide opportunities for her to grow her skills and use them in new ways. For example, ask her to lead a planning team, create an event planning checklist for staff, train others in event planning, or join a strategic planning session. If these tasks seem to take her out of her comfort zone, provide encouragement and support. Helping her find the “sweet spot” between current and potential abilities will help her grow.

Provide feedback to focus and inspire your staff. Let’s say Natalie loves planning so much that she offers to help students plan their culminating project presentations. As you observe her interact with students, you hear her say things like “Let’s do it this way” and “Here’s a better idea.” Should you call her aside and say, “Natalie, you’re making too many decisions for students instead of letting them make their own. I’d like to see you improve in this area.” Or should you say, “Natalie, I’d love for our students to develop their project planning and decision-making skills. Would you be willing to team with Linda to plan some coaching strategies to help students learn and practice these skills?” Which feedback is more likely to inspire and support Natalie in changing her approach? For most people, the second approach works best. See the Coaching My Staff section of Y4Y’s Human Resources course for ways to coach your staff (especially site coordinators) to program gold!

Recognize good work. Use formal and informal strategies to tell staff members their contributions are noticed and valued. For example, during employee reviews, be specific and give examples of what employees do well. Implement an employee recognition system to spotlight effort, innovation, problem solving and results. Recognize individual and team efforts. See Y4Y’s Employee Retention Training to Go for ideas you and other program leaders can use to keep staff engaged.

For more ideas on ways to treasure your staff and help them grow, see Y4Y’s new Human Resources course. To share your own ideas and success stories, leave a comment below. 

September 16, 2019

September 16, 2019

Creativity. Collaboration. Persistence. Questioning. Impulse control. Increased motivation. Improved academic performance. When students engage in project-based learning, these are just some of the outcomes you can expect to see.

Why does it work?

Project-based learning builds on the theory that learning is more likely to “stick” when it’s active rather than passive. Projects help students actively discover, process and apply new information rather than passively get information from textbooks, lectures or worksheets.

How does it work?

For thousands of years, educators from Confucius to Montessori and Piaget have outlined steps to help students define questions that lead to exploration, discovery and a lasting love of learning. The Y4Y Project-Based Learning course is a step-by-step guide to using this hands-on learning approach in your program. Briefly, it goes like this:

• Check student interests to identify a topic to explore. This might be cleaning up the local river or learning how rockets work.
• Guide students as they develop a driving question to organize the learning. Keep in mind the specific skills you want to help students master.
• Help students create a project plan and timeline. They’ll need to decide on a product or outcome that will demonstrate their learning. Creating a product with real-world relevance motivates and rewards student efforts. They might build a model rocket, create a video to encourage community members to act against pollution, develop a how-to guide so others can replicate their work or create multiple products.
• Facilitate the process as students work in groups to conduct research, brainstorm ideas, develop answers to their driving question and complete their projects.
• When the final products are complete, celebrate student learning with an event that helps show off the work.

Ready to start exploring?

The Introduction section of the Y4Y Project-Based Learning course provides an overview. The Y4Y Project-Based Learning Project Planner is a handy checklist and reminder to help you facilitate this kind of learning in your program. For examples of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) projects completed by students in other 21^st CCLC programs, see the Y4Y National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration project overview page.

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!