Afterschool and Summer Learning Systems Rise to the Challenge of Summer Learning in 2020
Priscilla M. Little, Senior Consultant, Big Picture Approach Training & Consulting, The Forum for Youth Investment & Jill Young, Senior Researcher, Youth Development and Supportive Learning Environments, American Institutes for Research
The Readiness Projects Coordinating Partners’ latest blog, “Summer. Learning. Loss. Leadership.,” asserts that “transformational opportunities are never planned.” But, when your community has a well-coordinated approach to afterschool and summer learning, there is already a mechanism in place that can be activated to respond to unplanned events. As communities gear up for summer 2020, afterschool and summer learning systems are once again demonstrating the power of partnerships to galvanize entire networks of providers so they can rise to the challenge of addressing summer and learning in the context of COVID-19.
Afterschool and summer learning systems improve access to quality learning and development experience throughout the year. Replacing a patchwork of fragmented service providers with a cohesive team that includes public agencies, service providers, businesses, funders, and schools, afterschool and summer learning systems help youth build confidence in their abilities as learners, make connections with caring adults, and feel more connected to school. They also give families a much-needed entry point for finding quality afterschool and summer learning opportunities. And they do all this by embracing the power of partnership and collaboration.
Denver Afterschool Alliance is a collaborative — inclusive of the City and County of Denver, hundreds of community-based organizations, Denver Public Schools, and local funders — whose vision is that all Denver youth will achieve success now and in the future through active participation in diverse, quality afterschool programs. It created a COVID-19 Summer Program Toolkit designed to serve as a gathering place for a wide range of resources to support program relaunch after closure due to COVID-19. It offers resources on everything from how to build relationships during COVID-19, to making the decision about whether and how to re-open, to tips and tricks for impactful virtual programming, to preparing for in-person summer programs. The toolkit is chock full of useful tools, checklists, and links to practical advice on relaunch of programming. The toolkit does not attempt to interpret government orders, but rather connects providers to the most up-to-date and relevant information from state and local government agencies. It is updated weekly to ensure that providers have the most current information about policies and procedures as well as access to new programming resources as they are developed.
NextUp is a collaborative community initiative in Richmond, Virginia, dedicated to providing opportunities for middle school youth to continue their learning beyond the school day. It coordinates a network of providers to ensure that middle schoolers in Richmond have access to quality afterschool and summer learning experiences, providing professional development, data supports, and funding to its provider network. To help afterschool providers continue to deliver enrichments as a critical learning and development support over the summer, it created an online portal with both synchronous and asynchronous elements. Middle schoolers subscribe to the portal where they select from four to six live-learning enrichments happening every day, Monday through Friday, 10am to 5pm at regularly scheduled times. Topics range from sports and wellness, to arts and humanities, to leadership and careers — all topics that support the development of the whole child. NextUp fuels virtual summer enrichments by scheduling providers’ classes, promoting the classes to youth and families, managing the central registration process, and providing grants and stipends to providers as well as trainings on effective online teaching. All programming is delivered at no cost to Richmond Public School families. To help connect more youth to engaging content this summer, NextUp plans to expand its portal for providers to include elementary-aged programs in July.
After School Matters provides Chicago public high school teens opportunities to explore and develop their talents, while gaining critical skills for work, college, and beyond. After School Matters partners with several city agencies (the school district, parks, libraries, and others), community organizations, and instructors to develop and deliver programs for teens. As the pandemic hit, After School Matters quickly reflected on what was most important and identified three priorities to guide planning for summer programs: (1) maintain teens’ connections to their instructors and peers; (2) continue to support participating teens and their families with a stipend; and (3) provide transformative program experiences in safe environments.
Once After School Matters established what was most important, the organization developed strategies to meet the new set of priorities. It engaged in an intense planning process to address the many possible scenarios they might be facing for summer. It also created cross-disciplinary working groups to conduct deep-dive analyses of key issues and prepare an action plan for addressing them. Needs arose including: revising the teen attendance policies to be more appropriate for remote engagement; reallocating instructor hours to accommodate more time for planning; surveying teens and instructors to learn about their access to technology, and exploring new partnerships to address teens’ mental health and respond to trauma. This summer, After School Matters is using a remote-learning platform to engage teens on a daily basis, providing training to instructors in the new platform, providing guidance and tools to help instructors and teens meaningfully explore program content areas, and working with instructors and teens to deliver program packets and supplies to teens’ homes.
These are just three examples of the many bright spots across our communities that demonstrate the power of partnerships to support learning and development in- and out-of -school, and now, when out-of-school time is all the time.
If this blog has peaked your curiosity, you can learn more about how afterschool and summer learning systems and providers are responding to COVID-19 in this new resource prepared by Every Hour Counts.
