Dear Afterschool Development Advocates,
As our country and our world continue to grapple with the impact and uncertainty of COVID-19, our thoughts go out to everyone who is being affected, especially those who are most vulnerable. Like everyone in the Afterschool Development movement, our top priority is responding to this crisis in a thoughtful and serious way.
Our kids and our communities need us more than ever and I am proud to be working with a national community of Afterschool Development leaders, front-line practitioners and other caring adults dedicated to ensuring that our youth and families who are already isolated and marginalized have the tools to navigate this time and to grow through it all.
Enclosed you will find the next issue of
Play it Forward
which features some of the innovative and inspiring practitioners, academics, artists, researchers and philanthropists who daily contribute to this effort.
The time is now to forge ahead, with urgency and compassion, to protect the health and safety of one another – and to advance our shared vision of an inclusive and growth-filled world.
Wishing you health and safety in this uncertain time.
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Gabrielle Kurlander
CEO
All Stars Project
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- In the Field
- Building a Movement
- 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 find out more about Afterschool Development
CLICK HERE
.
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I am happy that downtown Jersey City is booming, and I want to make sure that the south side, and all we have to offer, is able to contribute to, and benefit from, this new prosperity.
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-- Jennifer Watterman Moore, In Purpose on Purpose, Jersey City, NJ
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Jennifer Watterman Moore is CEO of In Purpose On Purpose (IPOP), a Jersey City-based community development corporation that is bringing science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) activities to the city’s impoverished south side. In addition to hosting a variety of STEAM-related classes, workshops, and fairs, IPOP is working to open an innovative performing arts center in the south side’s Greenville community. As a resident of NJ’s second-largest city, Jennifer wants to ensure that the economic and cultural renaissance Jersey City now enjoys is extended to every corner of the city. As she explains, “I am happy that downtown Jersey City is booming, and I want to make sure that the south side, and all we have to offer, is able to contribute to, and benefit from, this new prosperity.”
Prior to founding IPOP, Jennifer managed culture development for Amazon.com. A graduate of Seton Hall University, she is president of Operation Take Back and Pastor of Purpose Church in Jersey City with her husband, David. Jennifer is a big fan of the Afterschool Development movement, which she joined in 2019. “I have always worked with non-profits in the afterschool arena, but Afterschool Development is taking it to a whole new level. Our communities now have a tool for transforming an entire generation of kids. This movement is helping young people develop into something bigger and better, giving them a space in which they can dare to dream, and then see those dreams realized in tangible ways.”
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Program Participants - In Purpose On Purpose
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Our movement has a new
video
—
Afterschool Development: A new way of engaging poverty
features some of the academics, civic, community and business leaders, philanthropists, and young people from across the country, who are embracing afterschool as a powerful force for youth and community development. Among those featured are:
Kwame Anthony Appiah, Ph.D
., New York University;
Mayor Ras Baraka
, Newark, NJ;
David Chard, Ph.D
., Wheelock College of Education and Human Development at Boston University;
Kathy Edin, Ph.D
., Princeton University;
Hunter Hunt
, Hunt Consolidated Energy; and
Willa Taylor
, Goodman Theater.
To view it,
click on the image below
and please share it broadly with individuals, organizations and agencies interested in learning about Afterschool Development!
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A growing movement dedicated to the social, emotional, and academic well-being of children is reshaping learning and changing lives across America
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–
A Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope Report
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“A growing movement dedicated to the social, emotional, and academic well-being of children is reshaping learning and changing lives across America,” according to
From a nation at risk to a nation at hope
,
a 2019 report issued by the Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional, & Academic Development. The report goes on to reinforce what the Afterschool Development movement has long recognized, that in order to succeed in life, in school, and in the workplace, young people must be supported to acquire the skills and abilities that promote, “…working in diverse teams, grappling with difficult problems, and adjusting to rapid change.” Several of the country’s top researchers are involved in this “reshaping” effort, including Dr. Deborah Moroney, managing director at American Institutes for Research, and Karen Pittman, president and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment, who co-chaired the Aspen Commission’s Youth Development Working Group (YDWG). Under Pittman’s leadership, the YDWG issued a brief,
Building Partnerships in Support of Where, When, and How Learning Happens
,
which calls for “…the creation of a ‘cross-sector vision with educators, afterschool and other sectors that supports young people in their learning and development.”
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Writer, editor and philanthropist Sari Hornstein is a passionate and generous advocate for
Afterschool Development
. Her introduction to the power of performance for promoting social development came when she enrolled her three-year-old son, Alex in a movement class taught by Patricia Woolsey in the mid-1990s. Some 15 years later, Woolsey co-founded ArtStream, which uses collaborative performance and lifelong learning to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) to gain the skills and confidence to engage with the world. She did so with the belief that “…theater offers young people with IDDs the best opportunity to do something remarkable.”
Hornstein enrolled Alex (who by then was 18) in
ArtStream
. She says, “When kids with autism and other IDDs exit the school system, they no longer have access to teams or support systems that have high expectations for their growth and development, and I wanted to make sure Alex and others had opportunities for growth and performance throughout their lifetimes.” Hornstein, who served on the ArtStream board for six years,
appreciates the impact that performing has on everyone involved
, whether at ArtStream or the other Afterschool Development programs she supports. “When we see kids succeed where they have so often failed,
it changes everything for them, for their families, for people who come into their orbit
. We learn to see that young people can live rich, fulfilling lives despite the deep constraints and challenges in their lives.”
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Paired with a spirit of curiosity, the learning from developmental evaluation can reveal insights that might never have been imagined, and that lay a track to realizing positive change.
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A giant in the field of evaluation, Michael Quinn Patton
is the founder and CEO of Utilization-Focused Evaluation. Among his many innovative approaches is developmental evaluation (DE), which supports the creation of research methods that are responsive to, “emergent and dynamic realities in complex environments,” i.e. those in which key stakeholders are in conflict about how to solve a problem. One way in which the DE process goes beyond conventional data collection is by asking stakeholders to weigh in on the questions they will ultimately be answering.
The author of numerous
books and articles on evaluation
,
Quinn believes that DE requires a “healthy dose of humility.” He states, “We can’t possibly predict every outcome of our clients’ work, nor is there one silver bullet for solving system-wide imbalances and inequities. The emergent nature of a new initiative…is a readiness for expecting the unexpected. Paired with a spirit of curiosity, the learning from developmental evaluation can reveal insights that might never have been imagined, and that lay a track to realizing positive change.”
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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 of
Play it Forward
:
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- In the Field – Profiles of people on the frontlines in our communities who are changing lives and making a difference.
- 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.
- 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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