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This DIY kit offers practical ways to implement social and emotional learning into everyday life. Ready, Set, Soar! presents strategies, tips, and techniques in a fun, easy-to-use format applicable in any setting and for all ages-children and adults. Registration is required on the WINGS website to download the free DIY kit.

This webinar recording is Part 2 of a two-part series on how afterschool programs can support social and emotional learning. The presentation digs into the assessment landscape to help programs recognize whether and how to implement assessments of social and emotional development. Hosted by the Afterschool Alliance, the webinar recording is available on their website along with downloadable resources and related links. Part 1 of the series is also available online.

The title of this Beyond the Bell brief from American Institutes for Research poses the question: Ready for Work? It focuses first on research showing social-emotional learning competencies are important employability skills, and then shares how social-emotional learning programs can support development of these skills-and how afterschool and expanded learning settings are an ideal place for this to happen.

Preparing Youth to Thrive is a new field guide that presents the results of a study of eight exemplary out-of-school programs committed to social and emotional learning. The project was a partnership among these top programs, the Susan Crown Exchange, a national foundation, and the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality, a research center. The field guide details key staff practices that any program can use, identifies six vital skill areas in social-emotional growth, and shares narratives from staff and youth about how these programs are making a difference.

Many of us know of the critical importance of developing social and emotional skills, but it is often difficult to connect the frameworks and research to the everyday practices that help foster skill building in afterschool. This Afterschool Alliance webinar recording focuses on bridging the gap between research and practical application of social and emotional learning practices that support skill building.

By now, we have all heard and read about the importance of  non-cognitive skills-also referred to by many other terms including social and emotional skills, 21st  century learning skills, or growth mindset-in the adolescent years. Presented by researchers from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and social and emotional learning program providers, this webinar recording focuses on how afterschool practitioners can apply what is known  from  effective social and emotional learning programs to their own work with youth in out-of-school time programs. The webinar is hosted by the Afterschool Alliance.

In this Afterschool Alliance webinar recording, "Foundations for Young Adult Success: A Developmental Framework," researchers from University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research discuss the findings of their newly released report, which provides evidence from child/youth development, cognitive science, psychology, and learning theory. Educators, out-of-school time practitioners, policymakers, and funders can use these findings to ground their work in a firm understanding of important goals for human development.

Despite the recent attention this topic has received, efforts to define and measure social and emotional competencies in afterschool settings are still emerging. This brief from Beyond the Bell, an expanded learning initiative from American Institutes for Research, provides an overview of social-emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom and afterschool. It also discusses the latest research and outlines strategies for fostering SEL in afterschool programs.

The American Youth Policy Forum recently hosted a blog series that aimed to shift the conversation about youth discipline from problems to solutions. Each blog post asks a different question related to the problem of discipline disparities, all pointing to opportunities for positive relationships between teachers and students. All of the posts have been compiled in a PDF publication that can be downloaded from the American Youth Policy Forum website.

This resource from the Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children and Families contains facts on bullying, as well as links to resources from a variety of organizations.