Newsletter | January 30, 2017
January 2017 Newsletter
Quick Links
Increased Attendance at CFY Sites
Beyond School Bells
Coaching for a Change
YPQA
Megan and Gwyn’s Nashville Visit
Upcoming Training Dates
Increased Attendance at CFY Sites
This school year Collective for Youth partners have had a marked increase in the number of students served at most of the sites. The middle school programming at Monroe, Morton and McMillan have had an increase in their average daily attendance by 75-100 more kids. Because of the transition of OPS 6th graders into a few of the middle schools there has been a significant increase in demand and therefore increases in the enrollments in the programs. The elementary program attendance has remained stable even with many of them moving the 6th graders to middle school. What a great opportunity for our partners to provide services to more students! As of the end of November we have served over 4700 youth in the programs.
Our partner Beyond School Bells (BSB), NE’s statewide afterschool network, has a longstanding goal of growing a pool of available state funds matching the Federal 21st Century Community Learning Center’s annual investment of $5.5 million in providing high quality afterschool and summer school-based and community-powered programming that meets the needs of Nebraska’s youth, families and communities. Despite the difficult fiscal situation in the current state budget, BSB will continue to educate policy makers about the importance of these investments which serve thousands of youth across the state. This will include educational activities such as Expanded Learning Opportunity week at the Capitol from January 16 – 20th, ELO STEM Day on March 23rd. One of BSB’s priority this session will be working with state agencies to ensure that existing state and federal resources supporting ELO programs provide the highest need youth with the highest quality programs. Representatives from BSB will continue to provide testimony in support of any bills that are introduced that focus on ELO programs. BSB will be reaching out to community partners in business and industry to explore opportunities to develop policies that support Career Exploration partnerships in ELO programs.
On December 2nd, we hosted a workshop entitled, “Strengthening Your Coaching Skill” with national trainer bob McNeil. This training was structured specifically to help strengthen participants coaching competencies and provide opportunities to practice effective strategies for holding their team accountable. Since the genesis of the Train to Gain initiative, our goal has been to increase the quality of services provided to youth in the programs.
The focus in the second year of this initiative is to help leaders at the sites level build stronger leadership skills and coaching to support systems in creating climates that engage staff, youth and families. As one leader described, “I am encouraged to go back to my site and be the leader I am supposed to be.” We believe the impact of this workshop will be the spark that creates real change. The charge to each of the 30 participants was to use the coaching strategies to engage in effective conversation, get buy in from their staff, and make a measurable difference in deliverables and engagement. As bob said, “We grow, thrive and challenge the status quo.”
bob McNeil is the Founder of “Coaching Leaders”. She has spent the last 21 years coaching, facilitating workshops, and creating conversations among leaders and organizations to help grow their intercultural competencies and leadership skills.
Each site has completed a self-assessment using the YPQA observation tool, received an external assessment using the YPQA and are in the process of using all of their data to complete a plan. Collective for Youth has officially launched our program quality system within all of our 30 locations. We are anxious to see what the data will tell us in the spring. This Train to Gain initiative was made possible by the United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council.
CFY Executive Director Megan Addison and Program Director Gwyn Williams attended the Frontiers in Urban Science Exploration (FUSE) Winter Institute on January 12-13, 2017. This event, hosted by Every Hour Counts, was held at the Nashville Public Library in Nashville, Tennessee. This gave them the opportunity to connect with stakeholders from various cities and discuss the connection between Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL). SEL is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
To learn more about some of the things they learned on this visit please see Gwyn’s blog post here.
Youth Work Methods Workshops
Active Learning &Cooperative Learning– February 24, 2017; 9am – 1
Youth Voice– March 24, 2017; 10am – noon