The Illinois Quality Afterschool team at SEDL has compiled this list of resources to help you and your staff provide high-quality 21^st CCLC programming. The Resource Bulletin brings you the latest information on afterschool research, best practices, tools, conference proceedings, policy briefs, professional development tools, and activities. We hope you will share this list of resources with your staff.

Upcoming Events

Illinois Quality Afterschool Webinar—Telling Your Story: Sharing Program Impact for Sustainability

This Illinois Quality Afterschool webinar is scheduled for June 7, 10–11 a.m. Join us to learn about communicating the impact of your 21st CCLC program to increase stakeholder support and lay the groundwork for sustainability. The webinar will include strategies from program directors of 21st CCLCs and some simple action items you can focus on this summer. Register now.

Beyond School Hours Call for Presentations: Applications Due June 30, 2017

The call for presentations for the 2018 Beyond School Hours XXI conference is open. The conference team is seeking exceptional presenters who deliver hands-on, engaging workshops. This is a great chance to put your work in the spotlight, reaching a national audience of practitioners, supervisors, directors, and policymakers. The Beyond School Hours conference will be held in Orlando, Florida, February 21–24, 2018.

Program Management

Report on Oversight of 21st CCLC Programs

In April 2017, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on how 21st CCLC funds are awarded and used, as well as what is known about the effectiveness of 21st CCLC programs. In the report, GAO makes four recommendations, including that the U.S. Department of Education expand its performance measures for behavioral outcomes and provide written guidance to states on conducting high-quality program evaluations. Although these recommendations have not been implemented, 21st CCLC grantees may find the report useful to know where future evaluation efforts may focus.

Continuous Program Improvement

Looking to kick your program up a notch? Try the U.S. Department of Education’s You for Youth guide on Five Steps to Continuous Improvement. Key steps include (1) define what you will do, (2) implement with fidelity, (3) collect data, (4) analyze, and (5) improve. The guide provides instructions and resources, including a ready-to-use, fillable logic model and checklist.

Diverse Learners

Promoting Pathways to Long-Term Success for Systems-Involved Youth

Young people involved in the child welfare and/or juvenile justice systems often face significant challenges to long-term success, including education and workforce barriers that hinder their path to postsecondary opportunities and a family-sustaining career. On June 6, the American Youth Policy Forum is hosting a webinar that will explore critical elements at the intersection of policy and practice for supporting systems-involved youth on a pathway to long-term success. Featuring high-quality, research-supported community-based programs from across the country, presenters will discuss issues of data and information sharing, flexible funding, and education and workforce experiences to better support youth with systems involvement.

Afterschool Programs Supporting Their Immigrant Students, Families, and Communities

Afterschool programs can play an important role in creating a safe and welcoming environment for immigrant students and families and in cultivating a sense of belonging and overall wellbeing. With guidance and help from the American Constitution Society, this archived webinar hosted by the Afterschool Alliance features experts from Legal Services for Children and the National Immigration Law Center. Speakers share the existing rights and protections for students and discuss the steps that afterschool program providers can take to make sure that their programs are a space where all students feel welcome and secure.

Social-Emotional Learning

Changing Minds Now

New research shows that witnessing traumatic events—like domestic violence, shootings, or even fighting—can impact the physical development of a child’s brain and may lead to lifelong health and social issues. But you can help reverse the effects. Changing Minds Now is a website that will teach you about the science of childhood trauma and how five everyday gestures, such as listening and celebrating positive behaviors, can make a world of difference. The website was created by Futures Without Violence, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Ad Council.

Creating Connections That Help Young People Thrive

We’ve known for decades that high-quality relationships are essential to young people’s growth, learning, and thriving—including young people who face serious challenges in their lives and in the world around them. This new report from the Search Institute explores the idea of developmental relationships, or relationships that contribute to learning, growing, and thriving. It also provides a framework for developmental relationships and offers ideas for fostering and deepening relationships in organizations and one-on-one. (Email address required for free download.)

Navigating Social and Emotional Learning from the Inside Out

Written by experts from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, this in-depth guide to 25 evidence-based programs—aimed at elementary schools and out-of-school time providers—offers information about curricular content and programmatic features that practitioners can use to make informed choices about their social and emotional learning (SEL) programs. The first of its kind, the guide allows practitioners to compare curricula and methods across top SEL programs. It also explains how programs can be adapted from schools to out-of-school-time settings, such as afterschool and summer programs.

Approaches to the Development of Character

In July 2016, the Board on Testing and Assessment held a workshop to review research and practice relevant to the development of character, with a particular focus on ideas that can support those who develop and run out-of-school programs. This online report and highlights-only document summarize the presentations and discussions from the workshop, including defining and understanding character, identifying what works in character development, implementing and evaluating character development programs, and measuring character.

Afterschool Enrichment

Easy to Implement Project-Based Learning

If you're interested in doing more project-based learning in your program but don’t have time to design the projects, look no further. The Buck Institute for Education and its partners have created the “Pick a Project” collection that allows educators to focus mainly on how to implement a project rather than how to design one. All projects include a project overview, eight essential elements of project-based learning, project sequence, teaching guide, and student handouts.

Academic Enrichment

Helpful Literacy Hints

The afterschool environment is a great place where young people can explore their reading and writing interests and cultivate an enjoyment of literacy for life. Whether you’ve already established literacy practices or are just getting started, these eight guidelines from the National Afterschool Association’s Talk TuesdayPD series provide professional development guidance that you can use to broaden literacy learning in your program.

Family Engagement

Parents as Allies in Reducing Absences

Parents can be powerful allies in preventing problems and creating solutions. This article from the Harvard Graduate School of Education outlines research findings about simple, low-cost strategies to target parental beliefs about attendance. The findings suggest that these strategies can reduce student absences and pave the way for academic success. The article also provides takeaways for educators, including a renewed focus on elementary school absences, communication with parents, and empowering families to support student success.

Sustainability

Making the Case for Afterschool

When advocating for afterschool programs, it's important to know what to say and how to say it. The resource section on the Afterschool Alliance’s website includes talking points and facts, as well as some basic outreach strategies that will help you get your message out to policy-makers and the public.