Core competencies are the abilities of staff to apply specific knowledge and skills to their professional practice. In other words, the core competencies are the key ingredients necessary to make a successful afterschool staff. Afterschool programs whose staff exhibit the core competencies will be best equipped to transform the next generation of youth in San Francisco.
The San Francisco Afterschool for All Advisory Council has adopted two sets of competencies: one for afterschool line staff and one for afterschool supervisors. These core competencies were aligned to the California After School Program Quality Self-Assessment Tool. Developed from national and local research on afterschool practice, these competencies will be a powerful tool for increasing afterschool program quality in San Francisco.
Downloadable Core Competencies document here.
Core Competencies for Afterschool Line Staff
The competencies with an asterisk (*) have been recommended as baseline competencies. The other competencies are recommended for staff who have mastered the baseline competencies.
Policy and Procedures
1) Ensures for the health and safety of participants*
2) Follows safety and emergency procedures*
3) Maintains accurate program records and follows reporting procedures*
Program Goals and Content
4) Deliberately designs and conducts activities that are focused on program goals*
5) Supports a program environment that is learner-centered*
6) Ability to connect and relate to youth*
7) Promotes a sense of physical and emotional safety*
8) Supports positive relationships between staff and program participants*
9) Supports positive relationships between participants*
10) Conducts activities that expand the participants’ knowledge and understanding of their own immediate community and the larger global community
11) Promotes the meaningful engagement and leadership of the participants
12) Incorporates activities to promote physical health
13) Incorporates academic content and skill development that contributes to participants’ school success and helps address the achievement gap
14) Ability to implement project-based learning
Professionalism
15) Demonstrates positive work and team ethic*
16) Adequately informs, shares information, and collaborates with important adults*
17) Advocates for the participants’ needs, providing referral information when appropriate*
18) Respects and honors cultural and human diversity*
19) Strives for self-improvement
20) Communicates effectively with other staff, stakeholders, and parents
21) Ability to effectively support English learners
Core Competencies for Afterschool Supervisors
The competencies with an asterisk (*) have been recommended as baseline competencies. The other competencies are recommended for staff who have mastered the baseline competencies.
Policy and Procedures
1s) Maintains accurate program records and follows reporting procedures*
2s) Ability to establish and implement effective administrative policies and procedures, as appropriate*
3s) Ability to establish and implement effective financial policies and procedures, as appropriate *
Staff Support and Program Management
4s) Ability to successfully manage program staff*
5s) Ability to recruit high-quality staff and volunteers*
6s) Ability to engage, and support afterschool staff in implementing program activities to achieve program goals*
7s) Ability to connect and relate to youth
8s) Strives for self-improvement
9s) Ability to promote the professional growth and development of program staff
Community and Collaboration
10s) Advocates for the participants’ needs, providing referral information when appropriate*
11s) Ability to support long-term sustainability through collaborative relationships and fundraising*
12s) Has a working knowledge of and abilities to use resources within the broader community
Program Design and Improvement
13s) Ability to design program activities that support program goals and incorporate needs and interests of program participants, their families and the broader community*
14s) Ability to articulate within the organization and to external stakeholders the program’s mission and goals, and how program activities align to them.
15s) Ability to gather and review data and conduct evaluations for timely program improvement
