- Building a Movement
- In the Field with Frank
- On the Cutting Edge
- Philanthropic Partnerships
- A New Conversation about Evaluation
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Play it Forward
is a quarterly newsletter that introduces you to the builders and influencers of the Afterschool Development movement, offers updates on the latest and most innovative thinking and practices in the field and lets you know how you can become involved.
Play it Forward
also provides a forum for exploring some of the latest topics of interest in the Afterschool Development community. To learn more about Afterschool Development
CLICK HERE
.
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Afterschool Development Working Groups present the opportunity to continue learning and to think about individuals and communities holistically, taking all historical implications into account.
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– Thomas Dougherty,
Jersey Cares
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We are speaking about young people, their families, and their communities. Everyone comes prepared to share experiences, learn and grow.
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–
Gloria Lopez, CEO,
Trinity River Mission
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Over the last decade, the All Stars Project (ASP) has convened dozens of Afterschool Development conferences, roundtables and working group meetings across the country. Out of these grassroots conversations and community building activities has emerged a new movement of leaders and frontline practitioners from hundreds of community, faith-based, cultural, education, youth development and other grassroots organizations.
At the heart of this growing movement are the
Afterschool Development Working Groups
(ADWG), whose members are among our strongest allies in bringing Afterschool Development to communities throughout the country. Held in Newark, Chicago and Dallas, ADWG are what many participants describe as one of the places where they can honestly share challenges, make connections and learn new ways to develop their work.
The ADWG also offer participants the opportunity to deepen their understanding of Afterschool Development.
To read more about the five distinguishing characteristics of Afterschool Development
CLICK HERE.
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(left to right) ADWG members:
Josephine Quaye
, dream director, The Future Project;
Antoine Joyce
, city leader, ASP of Dallas;
Willa Taylor
, director of education and community engagement, Goodman Theatre;
Gloria Strickland
, vice president of youth and community development, ASP;
Kristina Dove
, sr. partner relations manager, Big Thought; and
Gabrielle Kurlander
, president and CEO, ASP.
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Afterschool Development is an approach, ADI is the activity. My job is to support the growth of ADI, which means I spend a lot of time speaking to our stakeholders across the country.
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In each edition of
Play It Forward
,
“In the Field with Frank”
will feature interviews by Frank Pettis, manager of Afterschool Development Initiatives (ADI), with people on the frontlines in our communities who are changing lives and making a difference.
Frank Pettis (
pictured below
) is originally from Chicago where he worked as a community activist and organizer in Bronzeville, Kenwood and North Lawndale. While Frank felt deeply concerned about the issues – including affordable housing and failing schools – he realized “we weren’t preparing folks to create their lives, to invest in the growth of their communities.”
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This led to Frank pursuing a Masters in International Health Policy and Management at New York University, where he met the All Stars Project in 2017 at a job fair. He subsequently learned about the Fulani Fellowship, which gave him the opportunity to work with ASP co-founder Lenora Fulani, Ph.D. and to learn the All Stars Project’s practice and methodology.
In 2018, the All Stars hired Frank as Afterschool Development Initiatives (ADI) Manager. As he explains it, “Afterschool Development is an approach, ADI is the activity. My job is to support the growth of ADI, which means I spend a lot of time speaking to our stakeholders across the country.”
Featured in this first issue of "In the Field with Frank" is Josephine Robinson
(pictured below, front, right
), partner coordinator for World Vision in Chicago.
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“My work is all about elevating the opportunities available, and working with folks to make those connections.”
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Josephine Robinson has spent her entire professional life (over 40 years) investing her time and talents in Chicago's young people. As the partner coordinator for World Vision, a national, volunteer run, Christian humanitarian organization which aims to combat the crippling effects of poverty on communities throughout the country, Josephine strives to motivate and develop both young people and the educators and practitioners who work with them. Driven by her faith and her unwavering belief in Chicago’s communities, she proudly proclaims, “what I do is who I am.”
READ MORE
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Indeed, there is much to be learned – both from CYCLE and from McLaughlin. Throughout the book, she points to CYCLE’s core commitment to, and prioritization of, developmental activity and relationship-building – over any “top down” curriculum
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Book Review by Bonny Gildin, Ph.D., Vice President of Afterschool Development Policy and Research, All Stars Project, Inc.
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Milbrey McLaughlin’s book,
You Can’t Be What You Can’t See, The Power of Opportunity to Change Young Lives (Harvard Education Press)
, is a compelling must-read for everyone working on advancing the afterschool field. The book is a unique, longitudinal look at the “life outcomes” of participants in CYCLE, a comprehensive afterschool and support program that operated in the mid-1980 through the mid-1990 in the Cabrini Green public housing project in Chicago. In Part 1 McLaughlin offers a detailed description of the CYCLE effort – tutoring, a junior staff leadership program and three scholarship programs. In Part 2, she reflects on “what mattered most” about the CYCLE experience over the long term and explores three features that CYCLE alumni – now in their 30s and even 40s – consistently pointed to as positively shaping their life trajectories: exposure, mentoring by caring adults and membership in a community of belonging. In Part 3, she focuses on what can and should be learned from the CYCLE experience by both practitioners and policymakers.
Indeed, there is much to be learned, both from CYCLE and from McLaughlin, a professor emeritus at Stanford and the founder of its John Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities. Throughout the book, she points to CYCLE’s core commitment to, and prioritization of, developmental activity and relationship-building over any “top down” curriculum.
READ MORE
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Afterschool Development gives young people the tools they need to navigate the broader world, and to grow from the challenges and obstacles that come with that. As we have heard from business leaders, their families and others who work with them, the impact is huge.
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A linguist and professor emerita at the University of Maryland, Amy Weinberg, Ph.D. (
pictured below
) is also entrepreneurial and philanthropic, spending much of her professional career building diverse, cutting-edge organizations and institutes.
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As a member of the All Stars Project’s board of directors, she chairs the ASP’s newly-launched Afterschool Development Initiatives (ADI), to which she and her husband, Norbert Hornstein, Ph.D., are major benefactors. The All Stars has been one of their family’s leading causes for 30 years. “Now that I’m semi-retired, I am looking to spread my All Stars wings, and ADI is a wonderful way to do that. When the All Stars – which has done a wonderful job of getting quality programs off the ground – began exploring whether and how we could expand through strategic partnerships a year or so ago, I was eager to be involved. Whether we are partnering with someone to expand into a new city, or training other organizations to incorporate development into their programs, forming these relationships is the most effective way for us to reach many more young people – and to be sustainable over the long-term.”
READ MORE
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Research now shows that it is
relationships
, be it peer to peer or youth and adults, that are more predictive of impact and success than any other indicator, including attendance or demographics. In other words, it is not what we are teaching, it is
how
we are teaching that makes the difference.
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Over a decade ago, one of the country’s leading scholars on afterschool, Robert Halpern, Ph.D., (Erikson Institute, retired) issued a strong response to the prevailing belief that afterschool “success” should be measured through better test scores and academic achievement. Dr. Halpern argued instead that the afterschool field should undertake basic research and develop appropriate metrics for the unique developmental experiences that afterschool programs provide. In this issue, we are pleased to introduce you to a true visionary in this arena, Kim Sabo-Flores, Ph.D., co-founder, CEO of Algorhythm (
pictured
).
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As Dr. Kim Sabo-Flores sees it, every organization has the right to a strong and rigorous evaluation of their work. “Only 14% of small non
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profits are currently evaluating their programs, which means they are less likely to receive funding,” she explains. “Since they are often reaching inner-city youth who may not walk through the doors of a larger organization, it is the young people who are hurt by this disparity. That’s why for me, it’s a question of equity.”
The author of several books on evaluation – and the groundbreaking founder of youth participatory evaluation – Dr. Sabo-Flores has spent much of her career making evaluation processes and products both useful and accessible to all. This led to the 2013 launch of
Algorhythm
, an online platform that currently provides assessment and evaluation tools, analysis and improvement recommendations to 800 programs and 40,000 young people.
READ MORE
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See below on how you can join us in building the Afterschool Development movement!
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Please share your responses to anything in
Play it Forward
and thoughts you have on Afterschool Development and what it means for our communities and country.
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Share
Play It Forward
with others and invite them to subscribe.
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In the Next Quarter Issue
Play it Forward
:
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- Building a Movement – Updates on the issues that practitioners, academics, and business, civic and community leaders are coming together to discuss in Afterschool Development working groups and conferences.
- In the Field with Frank – Interviews by ASP manager of Afterschool Development Initiatives Frank Pettis with people on the frontlines in our communities who are changing lives and making a difference.
- On the Cutting Edge – The latest developments in thought leadership, research and policy helping to shape the conversation about Afterschool Development, education and poverty in America.
- Philanthropic Partnerships – Featuring partners and funders who are stepping up and investing in Afterschool Development and its growth nationally.
- A New Conversation about Evaluation – Highlights of the growing national conversation about evaluation and the need for new tools.
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