The fall season is a great time to review and replenish your toolkit for creating welcoming and supportive environments. Prioritizing getting to know young people, new staff, or new colleagues and creating a plan to stay connected throughout the year will help set a strong foundation for learning and collaboration.

A new Collaboration Playbook from Afterschool Alliance showcases how states can effectively use Child Care and Development (CCDF) funds to support school-age childcare through strategic partnerships. The playbook highlights examples from several states using our Program Quality Assessment (PQA) and emphasizes positive youth development, equitable quality improvement systems, and the importance of collaborative stakeholder engagement to create high-quality, accessible childcare solutions.

What do Star Trek, musicals, and building equitable programs have in common? As it turns out, quite a bit! Drawing inspiration from the Star Trek Strange New Worlds' musical episode, this synthesis explores the parallels between the collaborative approach taken in creating a musical within the Star Trek universe and the principles employed in our Framework for Equitable Quality Improvement Systems.