Is Play a “Waste”?

Source: Joel deWaard

By Sam Piha

There is an inscription over a public school in northern Washington state that reads “Waste Not Thy Hour”. It reminds me of how young people’s play is often regarded as a waste. For many, play is the antithesis of learning time, however, there is growing evidence that there is a great deal of learning in play.

In an age of standardized testing and intense academic competition, it’s easy to believe that play is one more thing American children will have to do without. But free play encourages the development of the two skills that no robot can replace: creativity and teamwork. -The Secret Power of Play; Bethan Mooney for TIME (1)

Now is the time to reexamine the value of play, educate our stakeholders, and be unashamed to make play an important part of our afterschool programs. In this post we open the door to this reexamination by offering some information and definitions of terms you may find as you read about play. In a later blog post on play, we offer some additional  information and resources to encourage a reexamination of play. 

Many afterschool programs prioritize an extension of academics and homework completion over organized play, free play, and physical activity.  - The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds (2)

The Move AWAY From Play 
Over the years, there has been a pronounced reduction in the time that children spend in play. According to the Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health (3), this is due to several factors: 

1. Child supervision: Fewer families have available adult supervision in the home during the workday, which makes it necessary for children to be in settings in which they can be monitored by adults throughout the day.
2. Afterschool program changes: Many afterschool programs prioritize an extension of academics and homework completion over organized play, free play, and physical activity. 
3. Educational trends: There is a national trend to focus on the academic fundamentals of reading and arithmetic. This trend was spearheaded by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. One of the practical effects of the trend is decreased time left during the school day for other academic subjects, as well as recess, creative arts, and physical education. This trend may have implications for the social and emotional development of children and adolescents.
4. Safety: In many communities, children cannot play safely outside of the home unless they are under close adult supervision and protection. This is particularly true in areas that are unsafe because of increased violence or other environmental dangers.
5. Screentime: Children are increasingly being passively entertained through television or computer/video games. 
6. Super-achieving children: Parents receive messages that good parents actively build every skill and aptitude their child might need to become super-achieving children, and if their children are not well prepared and high-achieving, they will not get a desired spot in higher education. 

Terms 
There are many terms that one encounters when exploring the issues of play. Below are some definitions that may be helpful. 

Characteristics of play (4) 

1. Active. During active play, children use their bodies and minds in play by interacting with the environment, materials and other people.
2. Adventurous and risky. This type of play involves children exploring unknown or new concepts. When children engage in adventurous or risky pretend play, they are able to safely explore these concepts within the confines of a safety net.
3. Communicative. Play presents a natural opportunity for children to share information and knowledge. Children can communicate verbally, using words or their bodies, postures and other non-verbal cues and these messages can be simple or more complicated.
4. Enjoyable. Simply put, play is fun! When children play they should be enjoying themselves and they can often find excitement and humor in or through their play. If they aren’t having fun, it probably isn’t play. Instead of playing to win, children should be playing to play and have fun!
5. Involved. Remember that play is a child’s work, and just like adults need to concentrate while working, children should concentrate during their play also. Children might become very involved while playing as they are actively thinking about what they are doing.
6. Meaningful. Play provides opportunities for children to make sense of their world. Through play, children process the things they have seen and heard, what they know and what they don’t yet know. These experiences help children build upon their current knowledge, test out new theories and roles and grow their knowledge, understanding and skills.
7. Sociable and interactive. While it is healthy and necessary for children to play independently, at least some of the time, play presents a unique and formative opportunity for children to engage in social interactions and build relationships with other children and adults.
8. Symbolic. Children are able to test out roles, feelings, behaviors and relationships, replay things that have already happened in order to make sense of them. Symbolic play may just look like pretending, but it is actually laying the foundation for understanding of themselves and the larger world.
9. Therapeutic. When play is fun, engaging and meaningful, it can be very therapeutic for children. Play can be a natural way for children to relieve stress and work through different emotions and experiences.
10. Voluntary. Play is a self-chosen, spontaneous pursuit that children can change, alter and manipulate freely. Children should and will change the story, characters, materials, events, locations and purpose of their play at will.

Unstructured play is open-ended play that has no specific learning objective. Unstructured play is often informally referred to as simply "letting kids be kids" or "just play." At times, you may also hear it called "free play" or “self-play."(5) 

Unstructured play doesn't usually have any rules or instructions, and the possibilities tend to be unlimited! (6) 

Free play is unstructured, voluntary, child-initiated activity that allows children to develop their imaginations while exploring and experiencing the world around them. It is the spontaneous play that comes naturally from children's natural curiosity, love of discovery, and enthusiasm. (7)

Structured play is any type of activity that has a set of rules or instructions with a goal. For example, most games, puzzles, construction toys and organized sports are structured activities (8)

Organized play is ordered, overseen by rules, and managed or directed by another person. (9)
 

Source: Lapin Yliopisto University of Lapland

Youth Media Network Virtual Summit

By Guest Blogger Jason Wyman

The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture has been convening and organizing an intergenerational network of youth media practitioners for over 20 years, and in 2019 we are more uncertain than ever what exactly youth media actually is. We've spoken with Youth Filmmakers, Teen Librarians, Teaching Artists, Museum Educators, Executive Directors, Musicians, Youth Organizers, Public School Teachers, Poets and Storytellers and each one has a different understanding of what makes and is youth media. It's beautifully messy and complex. Join The Alliance in an engaging conversation and inquiry into what exactly is youth media on Friday, October 25. Share your voice and shift your perspective.

ABOUT MEDIA LITERACY WEEK
Inspired by Canada’s Media Literacy Week, the 5th annual U.S. Media Literacy Week, October 21-25, 2019, is hosted by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE). The mission is to highlight the power of media literacy education and its essential role in education all across the country. Each U.S. Media Literacy Week event calls attention to media literacy education by bringing together hundreds of partners for events and activities around the country.

Whether you are an individual teacher, an employee at an organization, or a researcher, you can get involved with Media Literacy Week by hosting a media literacy event or activity between October 21 and 25. It’s up to you to decide what, when, where, and how you want to execute your Media Literacy Week plans, but NAMLE has put together a list of resources if you need help getting started.

Source: http://www.thealliance.media/

ABOUT THE ALLIANCE
The Alliance Youth Media Network convenes, connects, nurtures and sustains strategic development in the broad Youth Media field. We support innovative and emerging models of practice within the fields of youth media, creative youth development, and media literacy. We do this through the collaborative production of a youth media magazine, ongoing Collective Action work, hosting national Video Roundtable conversations, designing and producing youth media conference content with global partners, and through the leadership of an international network of youth media organizations.

All of the programs of our Youth Media Initiative use an intergenerational, co-creative approach as a means to demonstrate the possibilities and impact of a range of youth and elders working collaboratively and inclusively, interrogating power and privilege across program areas. To learn more click here.

Source: http://www.thealliance.media/

Voices from the Field: Pay and Professionalism, Part 2

By Stacey Daraio

Rick Rood

Rick Rood has been on the front lines of Out-of-School-Time (OST) programs for over 25 years, working directly with children and front-line staff. (Note: OST programs are also referred to as afterschool or expanded learning programs.) Rick is an OST trainer, an author, and co-creator of the Beyond School Time Conference, and a bold thinker in the OST arena. He also serves on the Leadership Team of the California AfterSchool Network.

Below is part 2 of Rick’s responses to our interview questions. You can view part 1 here.

Q: Can you say more about professionalization of the field?

A: I believe that if we are to create a network of vibrant, healthy OST programs, we need to have a stronger sense of professionalism and unity as a field.  I think that the seeds of professionalism are there… but mostly only exist for the upper levels of management – not for the on-the-floor teachers and site coordinators. We need to extend this sense of professionalism all the way down to the grassroots – make sure that line staff understand that they’re part of something bigger, something that makes a difference. On a positive note, I think this year’s Site Coordinator Symposium put on by the California Afterschool Network took a HUGE step toward extending that professionalism to line staff. We need LOTS more of that type of experience.

Of course, the issue of professionalism is directly linked to the issue of pay. To create a professional system, we need to signal to front-line workers that their work is worthy. We want them to treat it as a profession – to continue their education and sharpen their expertise – but it gets difficult to convince someone their work is worthwhile when Carl's Jr. is offering better pay and more hours just down the street.

Another thing that I find paradoxical is how some of the leaders of the field promote jobs in out-of-school-time as stepping stones to other fields like classroom teaching, social work, nursing, et cetera. While I understand that working in out-of-school time can give people exposure to what it is like to work with children and youth, I think the unconscious message is dangerous to the field, and that is “Out-of-School Time isn’t a real profession… it’s just a pit stop on the way to something else.” Yet we continue to raise the bar for what we expect from our OST programming as well as the level of professionalism we expect from directors and front-line workers. I think it’s time that the leaders of the field take a stand for professionalizing the field and stop sending mixed messages about whether or not Out-of-School-Time is a standalone field that is worthy of professionalization and the pay and status that goes with that designation. 

I’m not saying that figuring out the money equation is going to be easy. It does seem that it’s going to take a consortium of departments of education and government (city, county, state, and federal) private sector investment and sustaining support, as well as a free-market fee-for-service component. If there’s one thing we’ve learned is that we can’t balance the cost of quality on the backs of any one of those options alone. The problem is that I don’t see a lot of movement on this front – at least not as much movement as one would expect given our pledges around the importance of OST Programs.

Q: The Beyond School Time Conference has a focus this year on youth development. Can you tell us about that?

A: The youth development philosophy, to my mind, is the only one that makes sense when you’re talking about OST Programs. I feel that in the mid 2000’s the overall philosophy behind OST programs shifted away from the Youth Development camp into many programs just being an extension of the school day.

With the recent upsurge in the understanding of the importance of Social/Emotional Learning, as well as the Aspen Group’s phenomenal report “A Nation at Hope”, and Temescal’s beautiful re-introduction of the Youth Development Philosophy, I think that it’s time that Youth Development philosophy takes its rightful place as the bedrock of how we look at quality in Afterschool and Out-of-School-Time programs. This year at the Beyond School Time Conference, our theme is Youth Development and the Whole Child.

Source: Temescal Associates

Since the late 1980s, there has been a cadre of dedicated professionals who have practiced and embodied the Youth Development Philosophy in so many OST Programs. When the philosophical discussion of the field turned to embracing a more strict academic track, the Youth Development folks kept on keeping on. Now they’re finding that their hard work and perseverance is paying off and the field is finally listening to their voice.

Q: Final thoughts?

A: I’m beyond thrilled to be an OST practitioner at this time in the history of the field. With the various points of research coming together to support SEL, the Whole Child Paradigm, and Youth Development Theory and Philosophy, I feel we’re in a renaissance of sorts in this field. And I’m excited (as I always have been) that it always seems as though California is leading the way. Now we have a governor who has repeatedly shown that he is supportive of our work, and we have momentum with various stakeholders such as the California Afterschool Network, Partnership for Children and Youth, and a leader like Michael Funk of the CDE who comes from Youth Development roots. I feel like the field of OST is ready and poised to go to the next level.

Back when I got my graduate degree in School-Age Care from Concordia University… there was a popular monograph that made its rounds called “Generation Theory in School Age Care”.  The theory followed the origins of the OST field from Generation One, which was characterized by the dominance of keeping kids safe as it’s raison d’etre, to Generation Two which ushered in the Kids’ Choice revolution, to Generation Three, which began to usher in the Youth Development Philosophy as the driving force in afterschool.

Generation Four was the pendulum swing toward strict academics and now I think, especially in light of the Aspen Report, we are seeing the dawn of Generation Five – which I believe will lead to the unification and professionalization of the field. I’m also optimistic that Generation Five will usher OST Programs into an empowering, synergistic alignment with the education field as a whole.

-------------
Rick Rood has been on the front lines of Out-of-School-Time for over 25 years, working directly with children and front-line staff. With degrees in Education, Afterschool Care, and Applied Mathematics, Rick is a student of the thought leader movement, distilling lessons from master teachers like Jack Canfield, Tony Robbins, and Brendon Burchard - giving them practical application to education professionals.  Participants have described his workshops as “fascinating” and “life-changing.” 

In addition to running Out-of-School-Time Centers, Rick has also taught kids’ music, computer programming, and youth leadership through his workshops. Rick is a contributor to “Youth Today!” and is the author of “Games Teachers Play Before the Bell Rings”. Rick is a Certified High Performance Coach™ and works privately and in groups with education professionals to help them achieve higher levels of performance in their work and personal lives. Rick and his team created the Beyond School Time Conference for Out-of-School-Time Professionals in 2018 as a way for Northern California OST Professionals to connect, learn, and gather inspiration. He also serves on the Leadership Team of the California AfterSchool Network.

Voices from the Field: Pay and Professionalism, Part 1

By Stacey Daraio

Rick Rood

Rick Rood has been on the front lines of Out-of-School-Time (OST) programs for over 25 years, working directly with children and front-line staff. (Note: OST programs are also referred to as afterschool or expanded learning programs.) Rick is an OST trainer, an author, and co-creator of the Beyond School Time Conference, and a bold thinker in the OST arena. He also serves on the Leadership Team of the California AfterSchool Network.

Below are some of Rick’s responses to our interview questions. This blog post will be broken into two posts and Rick’s bio will be presented in the second post.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your background.

A: I studied Computer Science and Applied Mathematics as an undergraduate, but my real passion was (is) music. During this time I got a part-time gig at a Montessori preschool there in Santa Fe, as their music teacher. I remember being amazed that they were paying me for this! After college, I came back to California to look for a job. I eventually accepted a position with a brand new afterschool program in Palo Alto, remembering how much I loved working with the kids in Santa Fe.

Q: How did your previous work inspire your passion for professional development?

A: First off, I had the amazing fortune of having a set of directors and mentors early on who really role modeled best practices in working with children and youth and molded my thinking of what quality afterschool programming looks like.

Around the same time, I attended what would be a life-changing event. I signed up for Anthony Robbins’ weekend conference – “Unleash the Power Within”. So, with Robbins, and a succession of other mentors like Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, and Jack Canfield, I really dove into the realm of personal development. I kept asking myself, why isn’t this kind of information available to the education community?  I started wanting to see the application of Positive Psychology principles for afterschool professionals. I couldn’t find this information available, so I started synthesizing them myself. 

Fast forward five years, and all this led to my applying to present a workshop at CalSAC’s State Conference in 1999. I had no idea what I was doing, but I had a lot of passion and I wanted to share some higher-level concepts with others who were working with kids during out-of-school time. I was beyond excited as these ideas were received with enthusiasm. After that, I was privileged to join the CalSAC Trainer Network and help them develop their Afterschool Development curriculum and serve as a Trainer of the Trainers for their first Trainer Network kickoff.

Q: After all of these years, what keeps you in this work? 

A: As a practitioner in the field, I have always been passionate about creating the very best in Out-of-School programming for children and youth. Serving as a trainer allows me to be out there with other professionals around California and sharing that passion and rallying front line staff to up their potential. One of the best things about being a trainer is when in a workshop or during a keynote, front-line staff and site coordinators really come face to face and connect with the impact that they have on the day to day lives of youth and families.

I still believe that the powerful principles of Youth Development and Positive Psychology are under-utilized in the field today. As a trainer, I love being a voice for this unique way of inspiring, motivating, and educating those that work in the OST Profession.

We’re starting to see some movement with the recent advent of Dweck’s work on Mindset, the GRIT philosophy, the reappearance of Youth Development Philosophy, and the resurgence of Social-Emotional Development. I think it’s a good time to espouse these Positive Psychology principles. In concert, I think it could mean a huge lift to the public’s perception of the importance of the OST Profession.

Source: CASEL

Q: What are you seeing as the greatest needs for educators in the non-school hours?

A: Two things: Pay and Professionalism. And they’re related. I feel like I have a bit of a reputation as being the “angry young man” around these issues.  And I have to admit, I do harbor a bit of angst around some of the policies of the leaders of the field.

OST programs have the potential to change lives and to open up new possibilities for children, youth, and families that wouldn’t be available otherwise. OST workers value continuing education and many have college degrees. Yet we treat these same workers as disposable – low wages, few hours, very few getting health insurance – while expecting them to be extraordinary in how they show up at work each day.

As a director, I can’t tell you how disheartening it is to lose fantastic employees to In-and-Out, Target, and other entry-level jobs where the pay is higher, hours are longer, and health insurance is available. Study after study has shown that staff turnover has a pronounced negative effect on OST program participants. Yet, we continue to think of our high rate of turnover as an “acceptable loss”. We all understand by now that having stable staff – significant adults – in the lives of children and youth has a profound positive effect on youth outcomes in the long run. I get very frustrated at how some administrators treat OST workers as disposable. 

I was at a workshop earlier this year on Afterschool Leadership Strategies, and the workshop leader, who was the CEO of a community-based organization that provided afterschool programs, said (paraphrasing), “… you don’t want kids coming back to the program after they graduate high school and see the same staff working there… what kind of example is that?”  I was irate at his comments because they demeaned not only the position of that teacher in the afterschool program, but they devalued the possibility of professionalism for any frontline staff in the workshop. The implicit message was that frontline positions aren’t “real jobs” – they should only be thought of as stepping stones to somewhere else.

The question of how to fund OST programs – which means funding the salaries of the OST Professionals staffing those programs – is a tough nut of a question.  I do think we need to look at some sort of compromise between the government-funded solutions of ASES and 21st CCLC and fee-for-service models. I think what we’ve seen is that you can’t balance the entire cost on the backs of either government or parents. The daily rates available to government-funded programs will always keep program staff turning over, and the fee-for-service model locks out 70% of families from having the resources to participate, and it becomes an equity issue.

Thinking About Equity: Nature and Afterschool

By Sam Piha

When I managed afterschool programs in the SF Bay area, we learned that many of the kids we served had never been on the bay, seen the ocean, planted a seed and experienced it grow into a real plant, walked in a forest or camped outside overnight. Many had never been beyond their neighborhood, owned a swimsuit or knew how to swim. Was this an equity issue? Yes. 

In response, we conducted nature outings, camping trips, and swimming lessons. We even purchased swimsuits for those that didn’t have them. Because one of our lead agencies was the YMCA, we had resources for this. But every afterschool program can contribute by incorporating nature into their program. 

Recent studies focus not so much on what is lost when nature experience fades, but on what is gained through more exposure to natural settings, including nearby nature in urban places. - Richard Louv

Richard Louv

In two previous blog posts, we reviewed the power of nature in afterschool programs. Richard Louv, author and Co-Founder of the Children & Nature Network, has written a lot about the intersection between access to nature and development. He was recently interviewed by the Greater Good Science Center. We share an excerpt and link to the full interview below. 

Q: How will this trend impact pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors in kids?

RL: If nature experiences continue to fade from the current generation of young people, and the next, and the ones to follow, where will future stewards of the earth come from?

Past research has shown that adults who identify themselves as environmentalists or conservationists almost always had some transcendent experiences in the natural world. What happens if that personal experience virtually disappears?

Q: Are there particular kinds of experiences in nature that seem to have the most impact on kids?

RL: The quality of the nature experience depends on how direct the experience with nature is. Are kids getting their hands wet and their feet muddy? These types of activities can help kids learn to have confidence in themselves and power to make independent decisions. 

One reason for this is the risk-taking inherent in outdoor play, which plays an important role in child development. Without independent play, the critical cognitive skill called executive function is at risk. Executive function is a complex process, but at its core is the ability to exert self-control, to control and direct emotion and behavior. Children develop executive function in large part through make-believe play. The function is aptly named: When you make up your own world, you’re the executive. A child’s executive function, as it turns out, is a better predictor of success in school than IQ.

See full interview here. 

Richard also gave us permission to share some of his interview with youth development guru, Karen Pittman. 

RL: Did you have experiences in nature that helped form who you are today? As a child or an adult?

Karen Pittman

KP: I grew up in a working class, urban neighborhood in a family that emphasized the value of sending children outdoors to play. We did not, however, do any organized outdoor activities beyond family picnics. So it wasn’t until I was in high school that I realized that you could walk the length of Washington D.C. through Rock Creek Park, or stand on the waterfront of the Potomac River. Learning this was liberating. To this day, I seek nature to calm, inspire, reflect, and marvel at the intricacy of life.

RL: How does a lack of access to nature factor into the challenges that youth face?

KP: The Chicago Consortium for School Research defines successful young adults as those who have an integrated identity, a sense of agency, and a range of competencies. Getting to these end states requires young people to have access to safe, supportive, relationship-rich opportunities to act and reflect while being challenged to learn and master new things. 

Nature is an ideal setting for young people to learn new content, try new things, apply their skills in different ways and fail safely. Nature is a new environment for many young people – one that they haven’t explored. One of the challenges many young people face is that they don’t have comfortable opportunities to be in a group of young people in which they won’t be immediately judged for what they don’t know. 

We learned, at High Scope Camp, the importance of challenging groups to learn and do things that none, or few, youth had done (e.g. folk dancing). These are “clean slate” learning opportunities in which some will shine, some will struggle, but it is not clear who will fall into which camp. Beyond exploration, nature also provides young people with ample opportunities to have a sense of agency, to achieve mastery and to flesh out and expand their sense of identity.

RL: Can you share any stories about the benefits of nature for opportunity youth?

KP: I believe that there are studies on the importance of programs like the Fresh Air Fund. But I’ll quickly share a High Scope story. The camp was billed as an educational camp for teenagers. Their jobs, for about 4 hours a day, were to participate in one or two short exploratory classes and longer workshop experience that culminated in a product or presentation. The setting for all of this learning, however, was several hundred acres that included trails, a small lake, and a working farm. In addition, all youth participated in overnight camping or canoeing trips. These were powerful experiences for all of the young people.

But for young people from more distressed communities or stressful situations, the main impact was that they had the experience of learning that nature can be a safe place. One that, unlike their communities, has challenges that you can predict and prepare for. Then, as noted, the second important learning for these young people is that they could become leaders in a broader learning setting in which academics is not the main measure of success.

See full interview here.

RESOURCES
There are many resources and articles on development and nature as well as program ideas. Many can be found by doing a web search of “nature and children”. There are also resources listed in the full interviews cited above. We also urge readers to take a look at the Children & Nature website. 

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Richard Louv is Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Children & Nature Network, an organization supporting the international movement to connect children, their families and their communities to the natural world. He is the author of ten books, including "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder," "The Nature Principle," and "Vitamin N." His newest book, "Our Wild Calling: How Connecting to Animals Can Transform Our Lives — and Save Theirs." In 2008, he was awarded the Audubon Medal. He speaks frequently around the country and internationally.

Karen J. Pittman is president and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan “action tank” that combines thought leadership on youth development, youth policy, cross-system/cross-sector partnerships and developmental youth practice with on-the-ground training, technical assistance and support. Karen is a respected sociologist and leader in youth development. Prior to co-founding the Forum in 1998, she launched adolescent pregnancy prevention initiatives at the Children’s Defense Fund, started the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research, and served as senior vice president at the International Youth Foundation. Karen was involved in the founding of America’s Promise and directed the President’s Crime Prevention Council during the William Clinton administration. 

One More Thing

By Sam Piha

We are committed to speaking out on the youth impacts of immigration policies, sustained funding for afterschool, access to mindfulness training and playful learning opportunities afterschool. Below, we offer some additional resources on these topics.

IMMIGRATION AND TERROR

Source: Denver Public Schools

“In the wake of the horrible tragedy in El Paso, Texas, and the ICE raids in Mississippi that have come crashing down on a nation already awash in rising racial tension and vilification of immigrant families, we…are now more than ever focused on being a safe harbor for all of our children and families.” -Denver School Superintendent Susana Cordova (Cordova’s full statement is available in several languages.)

We do know that some school districts have addressed these issues regarding immigrant youth. But what about afterschool programs? According to the Afterschool Alliance, “In communities across the country, anxiety and concern are growing among immigrant children and families in response to new immigration policies and efforts currently underway. Afterschool programs can play an important role in creating a safe and welcoming environment for immigrant students and families and cultivating a sense of belonging and overall wellbeing.” The Afterschool Alliance hosted a webinar with speakers from the National Immigration Law Center and Legal Services for Children. 

The Alliance is also in conversations with the American Constitutional Society for Law & Policy on hosting another webinar next month on the topic of the ICE raids. We will share more information once we know more.

FUTURE SUPPORT FOR AFTERSCHOOL 
We know that funding for afterschool is not guaranteed. Thus, it is important that we advocate every year. One way is participation in the yearly Lights On Afterschool events. 

“Join more than 8,000 communities and 1 million Americans in celebrating afterschool programs for this year's Lights On Afterschool! This nationwide event, organized by the Afterschool Alliance, calls attention to the importance of afterschool programs and the resources required to keep the lights on and the doors open. To learn more about Lights On Afterschool, register an event, access event planning tools, or to find out what’s going on in your area, visit afterschoolalliance.org.” -Youth Service America

Why not invite a policymaker to visit your program? By engaging them, you begin to build a relationship and educate them about the importance of your program and the issues that matter to you.

Check out Youth Service America’s site on GYSD Advocacy / Public Official Engagement Tools. This page will help you engage public leaders. Voices for National Service has tips for Hosting a Successful Site Visit. The Afterschool Alliance outlines five simple steps to set up a site visit and also provides these three case studies. 

PLAYFUL LEARNING
Too often we have avoided the “F” word, FUN, in afterschool programs.  The National Afterschool Association (NAA) dedicated an issue of Afterschool Today to playful learning. In 2019, The Genius of Play spread its message to afterschool professionals and parents through a new partnership with NAA.  

MINDFULNESS

Source: Laurie Grossman

For years we have been promoting the value of teaching mindfulness. We thought you might enjoy this brief radio interview with a school volunteer that teaches mindfulness to young people in an Oakland school.

Equity: A Different Literacy Lane For Youth Of Color

By Sam Piha

Daniel Summerhill is an Oakland native and a poet, spoken word artist and college professor. He recently led a ten-week writing workshop for young black men in Oakland which explored what it means to be young and black in today’s day and age. A collection of their work from that workshop was recently published in the new book Black Joy: An Anthology of Black Boy Poems.
  
I first heard Daniel Summerhill interviewed on KALW radio. Listen here. You can also view some of Daniel’s spoken word/poetry on his YouTube channel.  

We thought that Daniel could help us in better understanding the intersection of equity and literacy. This post includes his responses to our interview questions. 

Young folks of color have a different lane into literacy and the world of literature. Most of the canon is Eurocentric and is pretty well guarded to keep it that way. The canon as it stands may not be appealing to young people of color because they don’t see themselves in it. 

- Daniel Summerhill

Daniel Summerhill

Q: There are many people that believe that young people of color and those from low-income communities are not interested in writing or reading. Do you think this is a result of a “bias” issue? Would you also include this in a discussion of equity?

A: Absolutely. That notion is simply not true. In my experience as both a product of a low-income upbringing and my time teaching, I have found that young folks of color don’t have access to a catalog of genres/titles. Just as there is no one size fits all model for pedagogy, there is no one size fits all model for reading and writing. I wasn’t exposed to Shakespeare as a child, and honestly, I don’t know that I would have been interested if I had been. I was much more interested in Hip Hop Culture because that’s what I related to.

Young folks of color have a different lane into literacy and the world of literature. Most of the canon is Eurocentric and is pretty well guarded to keep it that way. The canon as it stands may not be appealing to young people of color because they don’t see themselves in it. That is what I discovered once I reached high school. It wasn’t that I didn’t like to read, it was that I didn’t like to read things that made me feel “othered" or “separate” or “inferior.” It is all about finding what piece of reading interests you. The writing comes naturally after you find the right book.

Q: How did you get involved in writing? Was there an adult that encouraged you?

A: I began writing in middle school. The first person who served as a catalyst for the poetry already inside me was my oldest sister, Tenesha Smith. She is a poet as well. When I was just 12 years old, I found a journal of poems she had written while she was in high school. All it took was for me to recognize what words were capable of. In particular, she wrote a poem called Wishing Upon a 747. In the hood, stars aren’t visible, so her poem, a play on the Wishing on a Star idiom, showed me that I could also use my culture and my discourse to share that story, that vantage point.

Once I got to High School, I had an English teacher named Mr. Ross. We did a unit on poetry. We wrote poems and then we shared them with the class, mine was received well. The next day after class, he pulled me to the side, bought me a brand-new journal, and wrote in it: “so much talent, never waste it.”  Til this day, I still have that journal and I have been looking for Mr. Ross to let him know the effect that day had on my career.

Q: Was there a time or event that got you interested in reading? Was there an adult that encouraged you?

A: During the same time Mr. Ross bought my journal, he also bought me my first book. It was called The White Boy Shuffle, by Paul Beatty. It is a great book and I highly recommend it to any young person (high School). Him buying me a book based on what he knew about me helped me realize that there was a world of writing separate from To Kill a Mockingbird or Lord of the Flies.

When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part. Our classrooms need to be places where all the children from all the cultures that make up the salad bowl of American society can find their mirrors.

- Rudine Sims Bishop; Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors

Q: We have found that young people greatly enjoy reading, being read to, and express themselves through writing be it through journaling or poetry/spoken word. Can you comment?

A: Human beings by nature are empathic. We want to connect and to be understood and heard. For a young person, this is true even more as they are discovering their voice. It is up to adults to provide a scaffold or framework in which they can discover their voice. Poetry, reading, writing is a multifunctional way to accomplish this. Not only are they improving their literacy skills, but they are also learning how to critically think, how to articulate, how to convey information, how to rebel, how to advocate, and how to safely release emotions. All it takes is encouragement, a pen and a paper. Poetry in particular, is universally economical that way.

Q: Can you provide any advice on how to engage young people in out-of-school in reading or writing, especially those who are turned off by school? 

A: If a student is turned off by school, it usually isn’t the student’s fault. It is because adults haven’t found the right method/environment of teaching for that young person. As we all know, there are a slew of different pedagogical methods, and many ways kids learn. Again, human beings are wired to learn. Whether it be in a classroom or in the streets, learning is inevitable. The key to fostering a safe and successful environment is discovering the student’s interest and the ways that they learn. This goes for outside of school as well. “What activity can you engage them in that will aid in their development?” is the question you should ask.

Source: KALW

Q: We have found that older youth enjoy books that are read aloud- something rarely done in after school programs. Do you have book recommendations for young people of color?

A: Chike and the River, Everyday Use by Alice Walker and One Friday Morning by Langston Hughes. Also, check out some poetry collections. They are awesome to read out loud. Some good ones are Joshua Bennett’s’ The Sobbing School and Dreaming in Kreyol by Danielle Collins.

Q: Do you have any book recommendations that young people may enjoy reading alone?

A: It is sometimes challenging for young people of color to retain information when it comes to narrative. I have used short stories to combat this. Lost in the City, a collection of short stories by Edward P. Jones is a brilliant collection to tap into. Best of all, it is a collection of short stories through the lenses of young people. All American Boys is another favorite of mine, by a good friend Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds. Anything by Chinua Achebe.

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Hailing from Oakland, CA, Daniel B. Summerhill is an assistant professor of poetry/social action and composition studies at California State University Monterey Bay. He is the author of Divine, Devine, Devine (forthcoming), a semifinalist for the Charles B. Wheeler poetry prize. Summerhill holds an MFA in creative writing from Pine Manor College (Solstice). He has received the Sharon Olds Fellowship and was nominated to Everipedia’s 30 under 30 list.

Daniel has performed alongside greats such as Jasmine Mans, Abiodun Oyewole, Lebogang Mashile, Gcina Mhlophe and others. He co-headlined a European tour and was invited by the University of Kwazulu-Natal and the U.S. Embassy to teach and perform at the annual International Poetry Africa Festival in 2018. He is the 2015 NY Empire State Poetry Slam Champion and a 2015 Nitty Gritty Grand Slam Champion. His poems are published or forthcoming in the Lilly Review, Califragle, Button, Blavity and elsewhere. A chapter of his research, Black Voice: Cultivating Authentic Voice in Black Writers is forthcoming by the Massachusetts Reading Association. 

Supporting Our Youth in Times of Fear and Threats

By Sam Piha

As our young people are returning to classrooms and afterschool programs, our country is gripped by confusion, fear, and anger that is a result of hate speech, mass shootings and deportations. This is particularly true for communities of color and other marginalized groups. It is important that afterschool program leaders think about how they will respond and support their young people in light of this crisis. 

Source: Keranews.org

“My family is documented and we’re residents, but regardless of that fact, we’re just scared. We’re afraid that something can go down. Personally, I didn’t want to go to school. Anywhere I go, I feel threatened.” 

- Roman, 17yrs. old, El Paso, TX

The Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence (AzCASE) offers the following tips for afterschool providers:

• Understand and acknowledge that some anxiety is normal.

• Connect with your community. Talk to parents in your program, talk to others working in your program. Just let people know that you are there for them and the kids.

• Turn anxiety into action. If your program works with a community that is more deeply impacted and you have the flexibility, find a way to allow the kids you work with to volunteer or find a cause they can support that builds the community up.

• Be available. Kids hear more than we may think. While you don’t want to introduce a topic that may trigger trauma, make sure the kids you serve know that you are there and willing to talk to them about their concerns and fears.

• Take care of yourself. These events are hard for adults too. Take your own mental health temperature and know when you need to ask for support or seek help. Remember you can’t help the kids if your trauma has been triggered.

• You can try The American Academy of Pediatrics’s website Healthychildren.org, a thorough and straightforward guide to talking to kids about tragedies and other news events.

We would add that it is important for program participants have a regular opportunity, such as a sharing circle, for young people to express their thoughts and concerns - not just when there is a local or national crisis. 

Source: Washington Post

TAKING ACTION
It is important that adults and youth do not fall into hopelessness. To avoid this, it is suggested that we find ways to take action for change. Below are some leading organizations, assembled by Youth Service America, that will help you take action:

• March for Our Lives
• Everytown for Gun Safety
• Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence
• The Brady Campaign

HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO ICE RAIDS?
We are currently researching how  expanded learning programs should respond to ICE raids that impact their participants. We do know that some school districts have addressed this and if your program is school-based, you should seek advice from your school district host. Below are some recommendations from Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), who developed a 10-step guide to help schools and educators support children affected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids:

• Make counselors, social workers, and other professionals available to help students and families who may be experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Identify bilingual liaisons who can, if needed, provide support and translation for students and families.
• Designate safe spaces, such as school gyms, where students and families can wait for assistance if a parent is detained.
• Provide the support and legal protections afforded by the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act if students have no place to live.
• Ensure that law enforcement officers are not on school grounds, unless needed, because their presence could re-traumatize students and discourage families from seeking support.

Source: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Equity and Access in OST Programs

By Sam Piha

There is a new book series entitled Current Issues in Out-of-School Time. The Series Editor is Helen Janc Malone. The Series promotes and disseminates original theoretical and empirical research and promising practices from practitioners to further grow and strengthen the OST field. 

The latest book in this series is entitled Changemakers! Practitioners Advance Equity and Access in Out-of-School Time Programs, edited by Femi Vance and Sara Hill. Because equity and access are such important issues in the out-of-school time field, we approached Femi and Sara with a few interview questions. Their responses are below.

Source: Edtrust.org

Q: There is a lot of discussion among afterschool leaders and providers about the issue of “equity”. Can you define what you mean by equity?

A: With this volume we want to add to the discussion on “equity” and we cannot do that well if we all mean different things when we use the term. With that in mind, we define equity early on in the volume; it is “when young people have the tools, resources, and other supports they need to achieve desired outcomes”.

We also caution against confusing equity with equality, which is when everyone gets the exact same resources. As we know, each young person is an individual with unique needs, equality will provide some support but it may not be the kind of support each young person needs to succeed. Equity, as we see it, requires us to provide tools and resources that are intentionally aligned with, and match the needs of youth.

Q: Many afterschool programs, per their funding, are located in schools that serve black and brown families and those from low-income communities. Do you think this covers the issue of access?

A: It’s a start but it is not the full picture. A few of the chapters in the volume draw attention to strategies that we can use to improve access for youth and families and to resources for programs. Based on her work with her program, Rachel Loeper suggests concrete outreach and retention strategies to meet young people where they are and encourage programs to examine their existing practices that result in the most vulnerable youth being unaware of or worse feeling excluded from programs. Suzanne Stolz pushes us to think about how we can meet the needs of disabled youth and Andrés Henriquez and Sonia Bueno share how to get immigrant families “in the door” and provide meaningful opportunities for immigrant families to participate in and contribute to programs based in a science museum.

And, yet, we are just scratching the surface. For example, there is still a rather large unmet need for programs in the nation, and particularly in communities with concentrated poverty. What, beyond funding, is behind that? We should also be discussing access to programs for youth who live in rural communities and how we can ensure that youth continue to access resources during the summer. Locating programs in low-income schools is just the beginning, not the end.

Q: What can programs do in the way of promoting different experiences to address inequity? 

A: One of the most impactful techniques that programs can use is to train staff to use a critical youth development approach with young people. In the volume, Merle McGee makes the case for why programs should invest in critical youth development and offers some practices and activities that can help programs to get started. In a nutshell, critical youth development helps youth to articulate, understand, analyze, and push against power, privilege, and oppression. Staff will need to examine and reflect on their own beliefs and attitudes about these issues to effectively use critical youth development.

We also encourage organizations to learn about implicit bias, or the beliefs and attitudes that unconsciously affect our thoughts and behaviors, both positively and negatively. Management and other professional staff can examine how implicit bias shows up in organizational policies and practices. In her chapter, Kathryn Sharpe taps into equity-minded OST leaders for recommendations on how to build equity and mitigate implicit bias. We think her chapter is a go-to resource for organizations ready to take that step.

Q: At the systems level, equity in afterschool concerns both issues of access and program experiences. Can you comment?

A: What we are currently lacking is an agenda that names the most pressing issues around equity and access so that we can begin to think through how we can address them. Legacy organizations, e.g. Boys and Girls Clubs, The Ys, 4H, because of their national span, may be the ones who can get this agenda rolling. Statewide intermediaries are also in a position to help set an equity and access agenda. As we have alluded to in our responses to earlier questions there is no shortage of issues that we can tackle. The tension will be deciding which issues to focus on first and the strategies to do so.

We can share a few equity and access issues that are currently on our minds. One is the misalignment between quality standards that call for equity, diversity, and inclusion and quality assessment tools that rarely address this issue thoroughly. Another is ensuring that people of color are better represented at all levels of the afterschool field, including the systems level.

A final topic that we have been paying attention to is how to recognize and respond to resistance, from people and organizations, to equity-driven practices. Equity can be uncomfortable for people to discuss because it requires us to examine the effects of privilege, power, and oppression on your daily lives. Undoubtedly, there will be resistance and knowing that, we can think through how to address it. We are currently collecting anecdotes of resistance to efforts to promote access and equity in OST programs, so if any of your readers would like to share their story, they should feel free to contact us.

People are already doing work on each of these topics, so there is progress. Again, we need a more intentional and unified approach to equity and access.

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Femi Vance, Ph.D. is a researcher at American Institutes for Research (AIR) where she researches and evaluates out-of-school time programs and provides technical assistance to youth development professionals. She strives to translate her research into practice via board service, training, and practical and relevant blog posts and guides. Dr. Vance holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy from UC Irvine.

Sara Hill, Ed.D. has over 25 years of experience in youth development, curriculum and instruction, nonprofit management, evaluation and research. Dr. Hill has designed and delivered professional development for hundreds of educators at all levels, including youth and staff at community based organizations, public school teachers and administrators. She received her M.Ed from Harvard University School of Education and her Ed.D. from Vanderbilt University, Peabody College.