Cambridge OST Coalition Updates

Cambridge OST Coalition News & Updates

January 2025 | Winter Issue

Image: Snow covered trees and ground in the Cambridge River Reservation.

Greetings OST Coalition Members,

It was great to see you in-person at The Foundry at the OST Coalition Meeting on October 16th. We hope that 2025 is off to a good start for you and your programs!

We hope to see you at our next meeting on February 26th. We will meet at 9am for coffee and networking, and at 9:30am the meeting will start - Russell Youth Center, Community Room, 680 Huron Avenue, Cambridge. You may park in the golf course parking lot.

Additionally, you are invited to join us at a planning meeting on January 28th at 10am or 2pm on Zoom. Look for calendar invites in your inbox. Many of your voices, and ideas contributed at past planning sessions have provided valuable content and guidance to our OST Coalition meetings and efforts.

Please continue to read and utilize links below to learn more. We are excited to share these updates and reconnect with you soon enough!

Best wishes,

Khari and Susan, Co-Directors

Agenda for Children OST

October 2024 OST Coalition Meeting

Highlights & Updates

Image: Slide from Small Group Discussions with colorful post-its. Responding to question: What, if anything you heard or saw regarding staff engagement in AFCOST Professional Opportunities, surprised you or sparked your curiosity?

OST Community leaders who attended the OST Coalition Meeting at the The Foundry on October 16, 2024:

Welcomed the 2024-25 school year and shared reflections on the impact of the newly implemented Cambridge Public Schools schedule change on their programs. Click to view poll results

Contributed critical data for the OST Expansion Study on three topics including: shared space (slides 23-27) and shared staffing models (slides 28-29 ) and better supporting students with special needs and trauma (slides 30-31). These topics have also been discussed by other community stakeholders as part of the ongoing study. Progress of the OST Expansion Study over the summer and early fall was discussed. More recent updates below.

Engaged with preliminary trends from the Impacts of Engagement in Professional Opportunities Evaluation (slides 33-53), sharing surprises and takeaways regarding benefits and expectations for their staff (slides 55-59), and possible connections to increased pay and access to career pathways for engaged staff. The Evaluation was conducted July-December with the full report available below.

Review meeting details and discussion notes in the:

October 16, 2024 Meeting Slide deck.

Save the Date

Cambridge OST Coalition Meeting

February 26, 2025

Location: Russell Youth Center Community Room

680 Huron Avenue; Cambridge MA 02138

Parking available at the Golf Course Parking Lot across the street

9am Coffee & Networking

9:30am-12noon Meeting

OST Coalition Planning Sessions

January 28, 10-11am or 2-3pm

Thank you in advance for responding to the calendar invites for the Coalition Meeting and Planning Sessions!

Making Sense of System-wide OST Data

OST Staff Level Data

The Cambridge Agenda for Children Out-of-School Time (AFCOST) is pleased to share our most recent Impact Evaluation Report,

Investing in Our People: Professional Engagement & Growth in the Cambridge Out of School Time Community. (Full Report, Executive Summary)

We hope that this report will spark deeper investment in professional growth opportunities for the dedicated staff who care for and nurture the wellbeing of our children and young people. The findings from this impact evaluation demonstrate that investing in professional growth and engagement opportunities for the Cambridge Out-of-School Time (OST) workforce has a profound and lasting impact on both staff and the youth they serve.

The data reveals that OST staff who engage deeply in AFCOST's professional development opportunities experience: increased knowledge, enhanced skills, stronger community connections, and improved confidence in their roles.

These benefits not only foster the professional growth of staff but also translate into high quality learning experiences for children and youth, contributing to a more vibrant, supportive, and effective OST ecosystem.

We deeply appreciate the OST staff who provided insightful feedback and shared their time, insights and perspectives through feedback forms, surveys, interviews, and focus groups.

Youth Level Data

Youth Enrollment in 5-Day a Week Programs & Waitlists

Here is a slide representing a summary of the percentage of CPS students participating in 5-day/week programs last school year.

The table above represents the most complete OST participation data pull that we are able to display based on the data that has been submitted into the Community Partner Portal. Please note, we implore any organization (besides DHSP which is all set) that has not yet submitted their Summer 2024 program participation enrollment data into the CPP to do so ASAP so that we can benefit from that data. If you have any questions please reach out to Zeena Brown (zeena@agendaforchildrenost.org) or Khari (khari@agendaforchildrenost.org).

The slide below represents the number of students who were on waitlists and never enrolled in OST Programs as of the Spring of 2024.

Update on City-Funded Scholarship Seats to Nonprofit OST Programs

During the summer of 2024 and throughout the the 2024-25 school year, AFCOST has continued to work in collaboration with CPS, DHSP and five community-based OST program providers to coordinate the distribution of 91 scholarship-supported OST program seats to high priority CPS families and their 5-13 year-old children. This effort has been critical to supporting more equitable access to programs as well as to expand the overall number of seats available in these providers’ afterschool and summer programs. Special thanks to Cambridge Community Center, Community Art Center, East End House, Maria L. Baldwin Community Center, and the YMCA for their partnership on this multi-faceted effort! As we head towards summer 2025 and as well as to next school year, the City is working on funding the continuation of these scholarship seats for FY26.

OST Expansion Project Update

The OST Expansion Study continues to make progress. On November 6, 2024 Michelle Farnum, Khari Milner and Susan Richards presented to the City Council Human Services and Veterans Committee providing an update on afterschool programming. The update included a detailed report on the results of the fall lottery placements in DHSP programs and an overview of the progress of the OST Expansion Study being managed by the Agenda for Children OST.

In early January, Advisory Group and Steering Committee members attended a Data Webinar presenting analysis and results from the data collected this fall. They also participated in Sense Making to dive deeper into the data, perspectives, themes and voices collected. Data sets included: program profiles, caregiver focus groups/surveys, teacher focus groups/surveys, and principal focus groups/surveys.

Image: *Here’s a graph that was presented at the Data Webinar summarizing data that was collected from OST programs and in support of the OST Expansion Study (n=28)

Next steps include, facilitation of Action Planning Sessions to refine strategies and recommendations that will be shared with City, CPS and OST leadership as well as with families, educators and across the community.

The final report will be available towards the end of February. We will share more opportunities for action and advocacy related to the recommendations coming out of the OST Expansion Study -- and it will be huge for our OST community to be engaged around next steps for the rest of this year and beyond. Please visit the AFCOST webpage devoted to OST Expansion Updates for more details and developments.

Staff Updates

Meet our New MSN Coordinator

We are excited to announce Vanessa Fisher has joined us as our new Middle School-OST Network (MSN) Coordinator!

Vanessa is a compassionate individual with a deep passion for working with youth and families, empowering them to navigate through situations and create meaningful connections. With a background from Wheelock College in Special Education with a focus on Child and Family Life, Vanessa brings a wealth of experience and a deep passion for empowering youth, particularly middle school students.

Vanessa has more than 15 years of experience working with middle grade youth in Cambridge. From starting as a youth worker to most recently serving as Center Director at Frisoli Youth Center, she believes in the transformative work that can happen with connection to safe spaces and people during one of the most formative periods of life, middle school. As a mother of two, and particularly with one child currently in middle school, she understands firsthand the importance of this critical time in shaping a child’s future.

Throughout her career, Vanessa has consistently worked to create emotionally safe spaces for middle schoolers. One of her proudest accomplishments is bringing a roller skating program to local youth, where they learned valuable new skills while fostering fun and personal growth. After her most recent role in Boston at a non-profit where she directed community programs, Vanessa is excited to return to Cambridge and to partner with our OST providers, schools and families to support the middle school journey. WELCOME BACK VANESSA!

Update on CPS leadership alignment with AFCOST

This school year there have been a number of changes across CPS at a district level. One is that recently Dr. Heather Francis, formally Director of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, was appointed to serve in an expanded capacity as Executive Director of Academics. Within this role, she is working with the teams focused on a number of areas, including Out-of-School Time. We are excited to have Dr. Francis as a partner in our efforts to support the needs of all CPS students during OST hours, and also to work in collaboration with her to maximize our collective resources to prioritize students with the highest needs and whose families face the most prevalent and deeply rooted systemic obstacles.