Calling all youth workers who work with youth ages 6 to 18 in the Bay Area: We need your voice!
The San Francisco Afterschool for All Advisory Council encourages all staff who work with youth ages 6 to 18 across the Bay Area to use their voice to inform the field about their experiences working with youth and gain a chance to win a $50 gift card. The San Francisco Afterschool for All Council is conducting a survey of 500 youth workers across the Bay Area by Feb 29. This survey will help strengthen our local youth worker field by informing training efforts, enhancing hiring practices, and informing efforts to professionalize our workforce.
All information gathered by the survey is anonymous. The survey asks questions about your skills, experiences and competencies.
Take the survey now for a chance to win a $50 gift card: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/806970/Afterschool-for-All-AFA-Core-Competencies-Survey
Monday, February 13, 2012
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Lights On Afterschool 2011 A Huge Success for Programs
Hundreds of afterschool programs participated in Lights On Afterschool – the national awareness day for afterschool programs across the country. This fall marked the second year that DCYF required all of its out of school time providers to participate in this awareness-raising event. DCYF grantees hosted a wide variety of celebrations, from parent literacy nights to awards ceremonies to neighborhood parades.
Below are some highlights from the local programs that participated in this nationwide event:
The Buena Vista - Horace Mann Afterschool Collaborative operated by Jamestown Community Center held a youth and family assembly in the campus’ multi-purpose room. Multiple afterschool providers were invited to participate, including several DCYF grantees, and the assembly included two musical numbers featuring youth musicians collaborating with teachers. After the performances, there were arts & craft projects available for families to do together.
The OMI Excelsior Beacon staff at John Denman Middle School hosted a Lights On Afterschool field day on the playground that included an art station, basketball, pizza, skateboarding, dancing to music from The DJ Project, and a presentation of and the opportunity to sign up for local afterschool programs. The event demonstrated the OMI Beacon staff’s intention of providing students with a solid path to success.
Horizons Unlimited hosted Lights On Afterschool activities that included MC performances, spinning of the vinyl, and Asian inspired El Salvadorian food. The support and care that staff provided for the youth was very evident and attendees were inspired by stories from staff about program participants’ successes.
Below are some highlights from the local programs that participated in this nationwide event:
The Buena Vista - Horace Mann Afterschool Collaborative operated by Jamestown Community Center held a youth and family assembly in the campus’ multi-purpose room. Multiple afterschool providers were invited to participate, including several DCYF grantees, and the assembly included two musical numbers featuring youth musicians collaborating with teachers. After the performances, there were arts & craft projects available for families to do together.
The OMI Excelsior Beacon staff at John Denman Middle School hosted a Lights On Afterschool field day on the playground that included an art station, basketball, pizza, skateboarding, dancing to music from The DJ Project, and a presentation of and the opportunity to sign up for local afterschool programs. The event demonstrated the OMI Beacon staff’s intention of providing students with a solid path to success.
The Chinatown YMCA organized a Lights on Afterschool event at Gordon Lau Elementary School for several of the afterschool programs it operates, including John Yehall Chin and Jean Parker elementary schools and the Chinese Education Center. The event was filled with lots of laughter, and students from all four campuses engaged in a game of dodge ball.
Excelsior RecConnect, as led by Mission YMCA, celebrated Lights On Afterschool with a neighborhood parade, alerting neighborhood families to their presence and the work they do with Excelsior families. About 35 youth strolled along the sidewalks with balloons and hand-drawn signs, singing and chanting about their program. When they encountered youth or families on the street (or when folks came outside to see where the noise was coming from), the youth gave them bags containing a piece of fruit and brochures with information about their program and upcoming events.
To celebrate Lights On Afterschool, Ingleside Community Center had an award ceremony to honor its youth participants. The children received awards for volunteerism and citizenship. The program participants topped the celebration with a special spaghetti meal, which they helped prepare themselves.
Mission Learning Center held a Family Literacy Night Event as a part of Lights On Afterschool. Family members and youth were divided up by grade levels and played literacy-themed board games that program participants assembled. At the end of the event, every youth took home a kit to make another board game to play with their families. In addition, parents and youth took home donated English and Spanish books.
Successful AFA Policymaker Briefing at City Hall
It was a great event:
• We had representatives from four Board of Supervisors’ offices (Mirkarimi, Avalos, Weiner and Sup. Jane Kim herself), one Board of Education member (Dr. Murase), aides from Assemblymember Ammiano and Ma’s offices, and Mayor’s Office staff in attendance. (All of the BOS and BOE members who were unable to attend received a packet of information from the event and an invitation to contact us for more information.)
• The room radiated the magic of afterschool with a mural and table top artwork from Opportunity Impact and Lights On Afterschool lightbulbs created by afterschool participants hanging from the walls – all speaking volumes about how creative, educational and engaging our city’s afterschool programs are day in and day out.
• Superintendent Garcia and the Mayor’s Education Advisor Hydra Mendoza kicked off the briefing with strong opening remarks about the importance of afterschool for all of our children in the city.
• AFA Council members did a fantastic job explaining the purpose of AFA, why afterschool is important in San Francisco, and our AFA efforts to tackle access and quality. The program sparked lots of interesting questions and dialogue among the attendees.
The event would not have been such a success without your contributions, so thank you!! A special thank you goes to Melanie Hopson who coordinated all of the logistics for the event. Additionally, a sincere thank you to Natasha Hoehn and the Silver Giving Foundation for their generous grant to the AFA Advisory Council which helped support this event.
Thank you again for making this event a reality and for helping ensure our policymakers understand the importance of afterschool
San Francisco’s Afterschool for All Highlighted as National Leader in Citywide Afterschool Systems
The National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families recently released new research highlighting progress in 27 major U.S. cities in building comprehensive, citywide afterschool systems. Commissioned by The Wallace Foundation, “Municipal Leadership for Afterschool: Citywide Approaches Spreading across the Country” identifies cities that are among the most advanced in their efforts to coordinate afterschool opportunities for children and youth.
The report finds that, as part of a growing nationwide trend, these cities have made a fundamental shift in their approach to afterschool programming, moving from management and funding of isolated programs toward in-depth coordination among city, school and nonprofit providers. The cities highlighted in the report “represent the most advanced efforts taking place around the country” due to their sophisticated use of data, adoption of standards and tools to enhance program quality, and long-term planning for fiscal sustainability.
San Francisco was the only city of the 27 cities profiled that “represent the most advanced efforts taking place around the country” that has more than 75% of the city’s school age population participating in afterschool opportunities. The majority of the cities profiled (81%) reported that less than half of their city’s youth participate in afterschool.
Below is an excerpt from page 38 of the full report:
The goal of “afterschool for all” remains elusive for most cities, with San Francisco making the greatest progress in expanding participation. In a majority of cities, less than half of the school-age population participates in OST programs, and in nine cities, fewer than one-quarter of students attend an OST activity (see Figure 12). Even in certain cities where public and private partners have made significant investments in OST and established a strong, coordinated system, there is room for progress in serving more children and youth. That a handful of cities do not know how many young people they are serving underscores the importance of enhancing local capacity to collect participation data.
Download the full report at: http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/iyef/afterschool/municipal-leadership-for-afterschool-citywide-approaches-spreading-across-the-country
The report finds that, as part of a growing nationwide trend, these cities have made a fundamental shift in their approach to afterschool programming, moving from management and funding of isolated programs toward in-depth coordination among city, school and nonprofit providers. The cities highlighted in the report “represent the most advanced efforts taking place around the country” due to their sophisticated use of data, adoption of standards and tools to enhance program quality, and long-term planning for fiscal sustainability.
San Francisco was the only city of the 27 cities profiled that “represent the most advanced efforts taking place around the country” that has more than 75% of the city’s school age population participating in afterschool opportunities. The majority of the cities profiled (81%) reported that less than half of their city’s youth participate in afterschool.
Below is an excerpt from page 38 of the full report:
The goal of “afterschool for all” remains elusive for most cities, with San Francisco making the greatest progress in expanding participation. In a majority of cities, less than half of the school-age population participates in OST programs, and in nine cities, fewer than one-quarter of students attend an OST activity (see Figure 12). Even in certain cities where public and private partners have made significant investments in OST and established a strong, coordinated system, there is room for progress in serving more children and youth. That a handful of cities do not know how many young people they are serving underscores the importance of enhancing local capacity to collect participation data.
Download the full report at: http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/iyef/afterschool/municipal-leadership-for-afterschool-citywide-approaches-spreading-across-the-country
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Afterschool Fact Sheet for Parents
Afterschool for All has just finished creating an Afterschool Fact Sheet for Parents.
You can download the Fact Sheets by clicking on the following links:
English version
Spanish version
Chinese version
The sheets are full of great information for parents who are making decisions about their child's afterschool care. Information includes:
- Types of Afterschool Programs in San Francisco
- How to Find an Afterschool Program
- Characteristics of a High-Quality Afterschool Program
You can download the Fact Sheets by clicking on the following links:
English version
Spanish version
Chinese version
Monday, September 19, 2011
New Online Training Available on SF AFA Core Competencies for Supervisors and Program Directors
Last year the AFA Advisory Council adopted "Core Competencies for Afterschool Staff" which identified two sets of Core Competencies-- one for line staff and one for supervisors. Core Competencies are a specific set of knowledge and skills which local and national stakeholders have deemed important elements to being a highly competent afterschool professional. These sets of Core Competencies are based on national research and then vetted by San Francisco representatives of the school district, city departments, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, funders and parents.
DCYF and the AFA Advisory Council sponsored the creation of an on-line training on the core competencies which was recently released. Online, you will find a copy of the competencies, a toolkit for putting them to use in your program, a PowerPoint presentation, and video clips of how providers in San Francisco have incorporated the competencies into their programs. Go to this link for these great resources.
DCYF will also be offering two opportunities for you to attend a training to help you become familiar with the Core Competencies and give you tools and ideas to implement them in your afterschool program.
Mark your calendars:
Core Competencies Training for Supervisors and Program Directors
• September 16th , 12:30-3:30pm; at DCYF (1390 Market Street, Suite 900)
• October 27th , 12:00 – 3:00pm; at DCYF (1390 Market Street, Suite 900)
* Facilitator: Maurita Dunphy, Sr. Program Planner, DCYF email: mdunphy@dcyf.org
DCYF and the AFA Advisory Council sponsored the creation of an on-line training on the core competencies which was recently released. Online, you will find a copy of the competencies, a toolkit for putting them to use in your program, a PowerPoint presentation, and video clips of how providers in San Francisco have incorporated the competencies into their programs. Go to this link for these great resources.
DCYF will also be offering two opportunities for you to attend a training to help you become familiar with the Core Competencies and give you tools and ideas to implement them in your afterschool program.
Mark your calendars:
Core Competencies Training for Supervisors and Program Directors
• September 16th , 12:30-3:30pm; at DCYF (1390 Market Street, Suite 900)
• October 27th , 12:00 – 3:00pm; at DCYF (1390 Market Street, Suite 900)
* Facilitator: Maurita Dunphy, Sr. Program Planner, DCYF email: mdunphy@dcyf.org
San Francisco Afterschool for All 2010-2011 Highlights
The San Francisco Afterschool for All (AFA) effort has released its 2010-2011 Year End Report, which describes accomplishments for the year. Highlights from the report include:
- In 2006, only 69% of children and youth in Kindergarten to Grade 8 who wanted to participate in afterschool programming had access. By 2010-11, slots were available for 91% of youth (37,263 individuals) who wanted to participate in an afterschool program.
- The City’s Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF) implemented a new funding strategy that provides city matching funds to the state and federal seed grants that SFUSD awards to community-based organizations to operate ExCEL school-based afterschool programs. DCYF awarded 55 grants which together total about $3.8 million each year for the next three years.
- One of the key challenges in the afterschool field is defining and measuring program quality to ensure that youth reap the benefits that research has shown high-quality programs can foster among participants. The Afterschool for All effort developed an “AFA Summer Quality Self-Assessment (QSA) Tool” That they hope summer programs across the city will use to improve their program quality. The tool offers three levels of indicators to help programs know where they are in the continuum of quality practices.
- In Spring 2011, DCYF and SFUSD led a pilot effort to allow out-of-school time providers working with middle and high school students to use a new online communication system (called School Loop) to share student academic data with providers to enhance their coordination and support of school success. For the first time, non-district staff were allowed to use the system to access student-level information, such as grades, homework, and school attendance. This type of information helps afterschool providers tailor their program offerings to meet individual youths’ needs, offer appropriate interventions, and enhance their ability to assist with homework.
- SFUSD partnered with the AFA Vision and Programming Work Group to develop a quality self assessment template for SFUSD’s ExCEL afterschool providers and school principals to reflect on their afterschool programs and plan for future improvements.
- DCYF continued to support the online Afterschool for All Program Locator at www.SFKids.org where families can search by neighborhood, age, or key word for afterschool options throughout the city.
Download the Year End Report here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)