Ready News: October 19, 2018

Social and Emotional Learning in Out-of-School Time: Foundations and Futures
“It is now time to demonstrate the value of the practitioners by supporting efforts to codify ‘what and how’ lessons to create a field of adult practice that focuses on modeling, teaching and enabling social and emotional development through active reflection and engagement.”

Karen Pittman, president and CEO of the Forum, charges us to move beyond demonstrating the value of “where” and “when” in out-of-school time settings in a recent publication of the Information Age Publishing (IAP) series, “Current Issues in Out-of-School Time.”

This volume contains chapters from experts in the field, including staff from the Forum’s Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality, as well as a closing commentary from Karen Pittman, and focuses on social and emotional learning from a variety of perspectives to offer a clear framing of SEL in relation to other OST concepts and initiatives.

Learn more and read the full volume.

Choosing the Right Path for Successful Scale Up: A Thought Leader Conversation with R. Sam Larson and James Dearing

Free Conference Call and Discussion

October 24, 2018

2:00 – 3:00 pm EDT

You have a program that works. How do you get it to benefit more people? Should you partner with other organizations? How do you make sure you stay true to the model as you grow? These are some of the questions Sam Larson, James Dearing and Thomas Backer sought to answer in their report titled “Strategies to Scale Up Social Programs.”

In the study commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, Larson, Dearing and Backer examined 45 diverse nonprofits and the choices they made in three areas: their partners, their approach to spreading their work, and their call on the balance between fidelity and flexibility.

Join Karen Pittman and the authors in a conversation on how to define scale, the emergence of a scale- up science, lessons learned and implications for the youth-serving field going forward.

Register now!

Connecting the Dots: Reflections on Data Use in Afterschool Settings

Blog by Larry Pasti, Senior Director of Field Services

Using data to improve performance is essential for bettering outcomes for children and youth. When a new data system is created or implemented, it’s important to address critical questions first about the processes and people involved, not just the technology. In this recent blog, the Forum’s Larry Pasti reflects on his own experiences as well as the Chapin Hall report, commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, titled “Connecting the Dots: Data Use in Afterschool Systems.”

This report is an analysis of a cohort of sites who worked on data sharing between school and afterschool systems. The overall summary of the site work emphasizes the importance of people and process as much as the technology selected.

Read more of Larry’s reflections.

Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality – Upcoming Training Opportunities
The Forum’s Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality partners with networks of youth programs to implement evidence-based quality improvement and accountability systems. To help build local capacity, the Weikart Center regularly offers trainings around the country that prepare participants to lead their quality improvement process.

If you’re a manager or site leader who wants to support your program sites through the Quality Improvement Cycle or interested in building your capacity to offer professional development opportunities to your program staff, this training is for you.

Youth Work Methods:

* Seattle, Washington: December 12-14, 2018 – Register Here!

For more information, please view the flyer.

Share Your Story at the 8th Annual Ready by 21 National Meeting
The Forum for Youth Investment is now accepting workshop proposals for the Ready by 21 National Meeting being held in Seattle, Wash. on April 23-25, 2019 and we encourage you to submit a proposal!

As you’ll see in the Request for Proposals, the workshops are designed to help participants dig deeper into the effective partnerships, practices and policies that states and communities are implementing to improve outcomes for young people. Click here for guidance into the four meeting themes:

  • Ensuring Readiness for college, work and life, by building competencies, abilities and mindsets.
  • Promoting Equity for all young people, and especially closing gaps for populations often facing great challenges (e.g., boys & young men of color, opportunity youth, youth in foster care, pregnant & parenting youth, etc.).
  • Improving Program and Practice Quality and effectiveness in ways that spark management & staff engagement and support better outcomes for young people.
  • Increasing Shared Commitment to changing the odds for young people through common goals, strategies and measures within and across systems & sectors.

The deadline for submission is Friday, October 26 at 5:00 PM ET. For more information and to review the 2018 National Meeting agenda for ideas, please visit the Ready by 21 National Meeting website.