Summertime provides a unique opportunity for community partners, schools, families, and young people to work together to provide programs and services that promote the social, emotional, and cognitive development of youth.

During this webinar, we focus on a 2019 report released by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine titled "Shaping Summertime Experiences: Opportunities to Promote Healthy Development and Well-Being for Children and Youth." Members of the committee who produced the report discussed their practices that align to the recommendations in the report. These presenters also provide insight on what actions you can take even as we consider the uncertainty of what lies ahead in this summer.

It’s springtime, yet rather than preparing for end-of-year assessments, graduation, prom, and summer school, educators and school personnel, along with community organizations and families, are grappling with the challenges of facilitating learning, keeping young people safe, and supporting their overall well-being when “out-of-school time is all the time.”  As educators try to find stop-gap measures to make learning accessible to every student, what are the most effective ways to engage and empower our adolescents, particularly in high school and beyond, so that they are equipped to manage change and difficulty?

A recent virtual event launched the Readiness Projects and featured a series of short segments and interviews to tee up real-time topics for action and reflection in the days to come. What are we seeing, hearing, leveraging, and doing to respond to one very visible fact: out-of-school time is now all of the time? Together, we are stepping back to think about the inequities that are even more pressing for today's youth.

At least 21 federal agencies support programs and services focused on youth. What does it take to make sure that all of these policies and programs add up to positive, healthy outcomes for young people? For over a decade, the Federal Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs has brought together representatives from these federal agencies to promote achievement of positive results for at-risk youth through coordination and collaboration, evidence-based and innovative strategies, and youth engagement and partnerships.

Karen Pittman Discussed Quality, Readiness, and Equity: Why a Commitment to All Three is Important to OST.