Resource Database

Self-care is vital to protecting your physical and mental health especially for educators who continue to face numerous challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. WestEd has created a brief that provides self-care strategies for educators, including recommendations for healthy mindsets and behaviors, setting boundaries, and social media intake. While this brief was written in 2020, these self-care techniques continue to be helpful today.

Although Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Day has passed, the topic remains of interest year-round. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) hosted a webinar called Cut the Jargon: What We Actually Want for All Students. The webinar commemorated SEL Day and educated attendees about SEL. One of the takeaways from the webinar is that SEL can happen inside and outside of the classroom. Schools are not the primary place where SEL happens. Instead, SEL can take place during extracurricular sports or community service activities. SEL also must be built on trust and relationships and driven by interest.

Culturally relevant pedagogy helps students align their academic coursework with their cultural backgrounds. Achieve the Core has released a blog series in which they introduce this teaching method, the curriculum used, and student learning outcomes. One of the tools students learn is critical consciousness; this helps students and educators examine the world around them and consider topics through an equity lens.

Several laws and policies negatively impact transgender and gender non-conforming youth. Many of these youth also must endure hostile school climates that deteriorate their self-esteem and mental health. It is, therefore, crucial for them to have a trusted support system. The Afterschool Alliance has written a blog post that provides tips for educators to advocate for trans and gender non-conforming youth in schools.

Women continue to be vastly underrepresented in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) sector. In a recent episode of “Houston We Have a Podcast,” NASA’s Kris Brown and Emily Calandrelli discuss the importance of inspiring young women to pursue an interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. Brown and Calandrelli describe their paths to STEM careers and how organizations can help young women cultivate an interest in STEM today.

Staffing shortages have plagued many industries and sectors, including the afterschool field. The Afterschool Alliance has released the results from their most recent COVID-19 out-of-school time (OST) survey results. Survey findings indicate that recruiting and maintaining OST staff are the biggest challenges afterschool providers face.

Students can create lifelong memories when they attend an excellent summer learning program. The Afterschool Alliance, Every Hour Counts, and the National Summer Learning Association have hosted a webinar titled, Planning for a Game-Changing Summer. This webinar focuses on making a summer program successful, recommendations on effective summer planning, and resources from program leaders.

Do you want to learn more about what afterschool programs are doing to support their students nationwide? AfterSchool Today, the bi-annual magazine of the National Afterschool Association, promotes advocacy and education for the out-of-school time (OST) community. The most recent issue highlights racial equity in OST, having meaningful research-based staff development, and strengthening the children and youth caregiving workforce.

Fiscal management of afterschool programs is more important than ever. A sustainable budget is crucial to a high-quality afterschool program, and sound fiscal management can help ensure that your program receives future funding. Through the U.S. Department of Education’s You for Youth (Y4Y) fiscal management course, you can learn what it takes to create a successful and viable program budget. Key components include 5–7 hours of training on implementation strategies, a 1-hour course on coaching staff, tools, and a library of external resources.

It is important that kids know how to safely navigate the Internet. In response to this need, Y4Y has added digital literacy to its suite of Click & Go training resources. Its purpose is to educate afterschool staff on the importance of digital literacy and how to effectively teach it to students. Training materials include podcasts, customizable tools, and links to additional resources.