Please help the North Carolina Center for Afterschool Programs welcome our new Director, Elizabeth Anderson!

Elizabeth is bringing more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and management of afterschool programs to NC CAP. She is deeply committed to building collaborative, cross-sector partnerships in order to address the many complex issues impacting children, teens, and their families. She is particularly passionate about making sure that children and teens have access to safe, high-quality out-of-school enrichment opportunities that allow them to develop their individual interests and identities while supporting their academic, social, and emotional success.

Elizabeth is a North Carolina native hailing from Winston-Salem, NC and she is a proud product of the North Carolina public school system. After earning her bachelor's degree from UNC Chapel Hill, she spent almost ten years in New Mexico facilitating and administering school-day, afterschool, and summer programs for children and youth. In 2016, Elizabeth returned home to North Carolina where she earned her master’s degrees in Social Work and Public Administration with a focus on Community, Management, and Nonprofit Leadership. She was Program Director for Chatham County Partnership for Children from 2020-2022 where she led Child Care Resource and Referral programming for a five-county region and served as a convener and thought leader on early childhood issues in Chatham County.

These experiences showed her the transformative power of afterschool, summer, and other out-of-school time programs and informal learning, starting her lifelong journey advocating and supporting afterschool opportunities. As Director of NC CAP, Elizabeth will provide strategic leadership to develop, drive, and ensure the sustainability of NC CAP priorities, initiatives, and statewide afterschool policy. 

We are so happy to bring Elizabeth onto the NC CAP team she encourages everyone in our network to reach out and open communication between your programs and herself!

Are you a program looking for an engaging math curriculum and resources you can implement in your afterschool program immediately? In this workshop series, participants will be introduced to After-School Math Plus, an evidence-based curriculum to support students in developing a positive math identity by exploring mathematics in everyday experiences. The highly engaging, hands-on curriculum also builds students’ awareness of the importance of math skills for future educational choices and career options. The program engages students in grades 3-8 who are attending out-of-school-time programs.

December 13th 9:30-10:45 PST / 12:30-1:45 EST Register Here Meeting ID: 931 5017 3110

Registration is now open for Duke Ignite’s Middle School Spring program: Tinkering Experience at the Museum of Life and Science. Ignite is a free, 8-week-long hybrid program for Durham/Wake area middle school students to learn about engineering and the human-centered design process to design prototypes to address local community issues surrounding the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Clean Energy, Clean Water, or Good Health. Our program kicks off January 29th, 2023. Ignite is formally recognized as a part of the UN Partnership Platform and is joint program between Duke University and the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. Students completing the program will receive a $30 gift card at the program’s conclusion. 

To learn more about the program, please visit our website

Are you looking for fun ways to help youth build number sense and problem-solving skills? Math can take on new meaning when it is integrated into daily routines in our afterschool programs. In this module, afterschool educators will explore and practice strategies for making math engaging and accessible.

Learn more about the upcoming three part series, starting on December 8th at 6:30pm, on the ACRES Website

In the first episode of Journeys in Youth Development, host Georgia Hall, Ph.D., director of NIOST (National Institute on Out-of-School Time), talks to Marisela Montoya, chief program officer at Foundation Communities in Austin, Texas, and Kourtney Andrada, senior director of school-based programs at Girls Inc. of Alameda County in Oakland, California. Marisela reads several excerpts from her essay “Sweet Spot,” about how she happened to wander into an afterschool program and found her calling. Kourtney reads from her essay “Investing in Communities of Color,” about her early experiences working with youth as both a track coach and as an advisor to teens in a migrant farmer community who would be first-generation college students.

It's not too late to join the NAA and the Collaborative for Advancing Health Equity in Out-of-School Time for a virtual training series designed to support OST programs with increasing access to healthy eating and physical activity for youth. Participants will learn how to leverage existing quality standards, such as the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Standards (HEPA), assessment tools, and data, to capture current activities that support the health and wellbeing of youth. Register Today!

Prepare for sunshine and soul shine at the NAA Convention in Orlando, Florida, from March 19-22, 2023. NAA23 is the ultimate charging station—powering human connections, inspired learning, and meaningful recognition for OST professionals. Experience the joy and rejuvenation, ‘the light,’ that comes from joining in community with a collective why. Out of school time professionals, this gathering is for you, for us, for ALL OF US, because together we shine!

Supported by the Mott Foundation, Mizzen is available at no cost to afterschool professionals! Download the Mizzen By Mott app to access STEM activities at your finger-touch! You’ll find it in Mizzen here.

Below is a free resource which Jobs for the Future (JFF) and some of their partners in Boston developed that focuses on Community and Belonging. The unit consists of six lessons designed to be delivered in 30-35 minutes each. In lieu of a more traditional lesson plan, each lesson has a student-facing slideshow on which the first slide provides the guiding question, learning targets, and agenda. Lessons can be delivered in the order provided or mixed and matched.

The overall goal of the unit is to establish foundational collaboration skills and a sense of belonging before moving into subsequent activities or lessons.

This is a new unit and JFF welcomes questions or feedback. They also sincerely hope that this valuable resources finds some use as a stand-alone unit or as a precursor for additional SEL learning in your programs.

Find the unit with all six lessons here!

Computer Science Education Week, or CSEd Week, is celebrated from December 6 to 12 this year. Often called the largest learning event in history, Computer Science Education Week aims to get K-12 students interested in computer coding. During the second week in December, students are encouraged to take part in an “Hour of Code.” During this event, students are given the opportunity to code for an hour. Computer science is an important subject because it teaches problem-solving and analytical skills, and is an essential skill in the modern job market, with many scholarships out there dedicated to this area of study. This week long celebration hopes to improve computer literacy among all.

Find some resources for celebrating computer science week through this link and you can even register to participate in an Hour of Code event!