Cambridge Agenda for Children Out-of-School Time - Blog

Cambridge Agenda for Children OST Receives $100,000 Grant to Pilot Registered Apprenticeship Program for Out-of-School Time Educators

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 17:42:46 GMT

CAMBRIDGE, MA – December 12, 2025 – The Cambridge Agenda for Children Out-of-School-Time (AFCOST) has been selected by the Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) to receive a $100,000 grant to fund a new registered apprenticeship program that will train a cohort of 25 out-of-school time (OST) staff. As part of the state’s Grants for Registered Apprenticeship Opportunities in Workforce (GROW) for Early Childhood Educators initiative, AFCOST will launch an 18-month, full-time apprenticeship program designed to professionalize the workforce and improve retention in the OST sector. The program is scheduled to launch in July 2026, with apprentices identified and hired by June 30, 2026.

This funding comes at a critical time for the early education and out-of-school time care system in Massachusetts. Recent data indicates the state loses nearly $3 billion annually due to inadequate child care and workforce instability.

“A stable, professional, and well-supported workforce is the single most important factor in delivering high-quality OST experiences,” AFCOST Co-Directors Susan Richards and Khari Milner said. “By supporting the development of front line staff in full-time, benefited positions, the Registered Apprenticeship Program for OST Educators aims to create a sustainable career pathway for OST professionals.”

The design of Cambridge’s OST apprenticeship program is a response to critical data surfaced in the recent City of Cambridge OST Expansion Study regarding staff attrition. The study found a stark correlation between working hours and retention: Within the Cambridge OST sector, attrition rates for staff working fewer than 30 hours per week are as high as 44%, compared to just 6% for those in full-time positions.

Program Highlights:

Full-Time Employment: The program will support a cohort of 25 apprentices, who are new staff working in front line, full-time positions across programs in the Cambridge OST ecosystem.
Comprehensive Training: Apprentices will complete 2,000 hours of structured on-the-job training (OJT) with 1:1 mentorship, alongside 150 hours of Related Technical Instruction (RTI) delivered in a hybrid format.
National Standards: The curriculum aligns with the National After School Association (NAA) Core Knowledge, Skills and Competencies and National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) quality indicators.
Credentialing: Upon completion, apprentices will earn a portable industry credential or certificate of completion issued by the Massachusetts Department of Labor. A portable industry credential formally validates an individual's skills and/or competencies.

AFCOST will execute the Registered Apprenticeship Program for OST Educators in collaboration with five committed employer partners: the City of Cambridge Department of Human Service Programs, East End House, Community Art Center, Cambridge Community Center, and Maria L. Baldwin Community Center. The Institute for Education and Professional Development (IEPD) will serve as the training partner, delivering asynchronous coursework and facilitating Community of Practice sessions.
“Our goal of increasing access to high-quality afterschool programs for all Cambridge children starts with the OST workforce,” said Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang. “The City of Cambridge is thrilled to receive this funding from the Commonwealth to support this new program under the leadership of the Cambridge Agenda for Children Out-of-School Time.”

"Thanks in large part to the strong networks and partnerships we have in place through the Cambridge Agenda for Children, City administration, and community organizations, CPS is well-positioned to support students both inside and outside the classroom,” said David Murphy, Superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools. “Programs like this that enhance our afterschool pipelines are crucial for our organization and families alike and we are grateful for this expanded partnership."

About Cambridge Agenda for Children OST (AFCOST): For over two decades, AFCOST has served as a city-wide intermediary organization connecting Cambridge Public Schools, the City of Cambridge Department of Human Service Programs, and OST providers. AFCOST provides professional development, quality improvement coaching, and network support to more than 450 staff from 70 diverse programs, serving more than 3,000 children and youth annually.

#Media Contact: Susan Richards Co-Director,
Agenda for Children Out-of-School-Time (AFCOST)
susan@agendaforchildrenost.org

Celebrate Afterschool Professionals April 21-25

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 14:18:56 GMT

The Agenda for Children OST is celebrating Afterschool Professionals Appreciation Week, April 21-25, to recognize, appreciate and advocate for those who work with young people during out-of-school hours.

We are joining the effort because research shows that Afterschool Professionals make a profound difference in the lives of young people. We encourage you to join us in thanking afterschool professionals!

Here are some ideas to show your appreciation:

Declare on social media: "Research shows that Afterschool professionals make a profound difference in the lives of young people. #heartofafterschool"
Give a hand-written card from you and/or your child to the afterschool professionals you know.
Send an email to an afterschool professional's supervisor describing why that person is appreciated.
Make healthy or non-food treats for the staff at your afterschool program.
For more resources and information, check out: https://naaweb.org/page/AfterschoolProfessionalsAppreciationWeek

Sharing Resources to Help OST Programs Navigate

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 18:14:54 GMT

At the Agenda for Children OST, we are committed to supporting Cambridge Out-of-School Time programs as you navigate the ongoing federal policy changes that are directly impacting vulnerable children, youth, and families. We understand that keeping up with these constant changes is challenging—especially when many of these actions conflict with our core values and the needs of our communities. These shifts can feel threatening, designed to instill fear, distract us, and drain our energy, often leaving us feeling hopeless and powerless.

Now, more than ever, it is crucial for us to connect, share our collective wisdom, and draw on our strength. We are deeply grateful to be part of a community that is committed to ensuring equitable access to quality afterschool programs.

To support you, we’ve compiled several resource guides that we hope will be useful. We also invite you to share any additional resources that could benefit your peers and colleagues. Use this form to send us your recommendations.

If you need any support or have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Khari (khari@agendaforchildrenost.org) or Susan (susan@agendaforchildrenost.org). We are here to help.

Navigating Federal Policy Changes: A Resource Guide for Youth Development Programs

Resources for Supporting Mixed Status and Undocumented Families

Resources for Supporting LGBTQIA+ Youth in Cambridge

2024 Rollin’ & Summer Resources

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 17:34:45 GMT

by Khari Milner, Co-Director, Agenda for Children OST

More than 650 Cambridge parents and caregivers attended the third Annual Rollin’ & Summer Resources event, where they learned about how to sign up their children for summer programs. The event took place on Saturday, March 2, 2024, at the Cambridge Street Upper School/King Open Community Complex. More than 50 summer camp and other service providers attended. Families enjoyed plenty of pizza, samosas, wraps, snacks, drinks, popcorn and snow-cones! Children roller skated, made art projects, tried parkour, played life-sized board games, built basketball skills, and more.

Families throughout the city accessed school bus transportation to and from the event. They received support to explore program options from: Summer program staff, members of the Cambridge Public Schools (CPS) Family Engagement Team, Cambridge Agenda for Children Out of School Time staff, and CPS parents and caregivers from The Village. Multilingual Family Liaisons and Community Engagement Team Outreach Workers provided translation and interpretation for families -- including many migrant families who have recently arrived to our city and district.

Providers shared that they enrolled more than one hundred new families into their summer programs. Many more providers continue registering and/or making decisions based on what they learned at the event.

Who attended the 2024 Rollin’ & Summer Resources Event?

47% of families' children have never participated in Cambridge summer programs before.
54% of families' children are not currently participating in afterschool programs.
Families represented 23 native languages.

This event was made possible by support from CPS and the Department of Human Services Programs (DHSP) and the Cambridge Out-of-School Time Community.

Together we can make sure that young people connect to high quality summer program experiences!

Refresher Playlist for the New Year

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 20:30:58 GMT

Tips for out-of-school time staff to weather the moment
from Melina O'Grady, Quality Improvement Coach and Facilitator

Balance media consumption. You can stay informed and in balance. The barrage of negative news of all kinds can leave us feeling afraid, angry, helpless. It’s ok to take breaks, to tune down or tune out for short and longer stretches. Practice spending as much time creating, exercising, socializing, reflecting, being silent, singing, dancing, playing, sketching, and dreaming as you do catching up on the day’s news.

Add in daily doses of laughter. Laughter can be a great antidote to global pandemic stress! Find different ways to nurture your humorous side, and reach out to people who make you smile. Smiles are contagious!

Build your brain. Taking care of your cognitive side can boost your esteem, help you make better decisions, give you more insight. Read and listen to things you’re interested in – science, technology, astronomy, deep oceans, dense rain forests, languages, cultures, your own ancestry, even the neurological impacts of stress. STEAM habits of mind refers to this as the practice of “Stretch and explore.” More on adolescent cognitive development here. More on learning how to manage secondary stress here.

Live your commitments - take a few minutes each morning to remind yourself who and what you are committed to and how to nurture those relationships

Journal – writing works out your brain, it’s like exercise for your grey matter

Check in with yourself – body, mind, spirit. Check yourself throughout the day. Reflect, tell someone what you notice.

Play and be playful - Play has so many benefits to well-being! Play games you know, make up new games, push through hesitation.

Learn a new skill – get inspired by Virgil Abloh

Imagine a new future - with Sonya Renee Taylor

Take a mindfulness course - with the Lineage Project

Get Outside – yes, even in winter! Notice nature around you. Nature heals.

Melina O'Grady serves as a Quality Coach and facilitator with Agenda for Children OST where she is responsible for supporting OST programs through the Quality Improvement System. She is also an independent education consultant with roots as a counselor and teacher and a vision for creating and supporting dynamic learning environments in and outside of schools that fully engage both teacher and student. Her 20 years of experience spans residential facilities, arts organizations, juvenile hall and out-of-school time programs in Cambridge, Boston and across the country. She founded a nonprofit girls journalism organization in San Francisco, and currently works with schools and districts to integrate social emotional learning and development in the classroom. melina@agendaforchildrenost.org

If you'd like to share resources with your colleagues, tell us how you are coping and healing, and helping the youth and families that you work with to heal, and continuing to find joy, please submit a blog post by emailing. Here are some tips to help get you started.

Is Your Program a Safe Space?

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 18:27:41 GMT

By Beck Govoni, After School Coordinator at the Cambridge YMCA

Image By: itzlitwrite on etsy

“Safe Space” reads the sign on your program door. As you enter you pause, perhaps for the first time, you actually pause and think about those words written across an upside down triangle. You survey your classroom. Is your program a safe space? Who or what is it a safe space for? What is the point of the sign on your door?

These questions and line of thinking is the first step to working towards creating a safe space for transgender and gender nonconforming youth in your program. Creating a safe space is more than putting a couple of stickers on your door and calling it a day, yet as everyone who works with youth knows, stickers do hold great importance.

image by: blackparadepoisonx18

Working with transgender and gender nonconforming youth can be an enriching and meaningful experience for youth workers, but where do you start? What if you say the wrong thing? Are you really qualified to help these young people? Lucky for you, you are on the right track again.

The first step to helping transgender and gender nonconforming youth is examining yourself and your role as a youth worker.

My first priority as a youth worker is children’s safety and my second priority is having fun. These priorities can be challenging because transgender youth are more likely than other young people to be bullied, experience homelessness, experience abuse, and be assaulted and these rates are even higher in transgender people of color. This is why it is so important to create a safe space not only within your program but also within yourself.

Remember that you are there for the youth. You may feel awkward or uncomfortable as you begin your journey to becoming a safe space, but that is normal. It is ok to feel that way. You may have been raised with different societal expectations of gender. This may be your first interaction with someone who is transgender or gender nonconforming. Here is a tip sheet that I have developed to support the staff I support to Work With Youth Who Are Transgender/Gender Nonconforming.

Approach the situation with respect, empathy, and a willingness to learn.

The next step to creating a safe space is examining the space you are in. What media do you have in your program? Is it inclusive and supportive of transgender and gender nonconforming people? Look at the books on your shelves and the posters on the wall.

Remember that you, as a youth worker, hold the incredible power of inclusion. You have the ability to make all children and youth feel safe, comfortable, and able to be themselves in an environment you create. You are capable of becoming a safe space, you just need to take those first steps.

Beck has a bachelor's degree in Sociology with a minor in Gender Studies and has served as the Afterschool Coordinator at the Cambridge YMCA since 2019. Beck has worked with youth for more than 6 years and recently hosted an OST Clubhouse Conversation at the 2021 Reimagining OST Symposium entitled: Supporting Your Gender Nonconforming Youth.

We also recommend that you request and explore the recorded training: Gender Dynamics and Identity: Grades 4-8, facilitated by Minh Nguyen. Learn more.

TEACHING, LEARNING AND PLAYING WITH DIGNITY AND JUSTICE

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 16:28:47 GMT

What Leaders Must Do to Ensure Building Culturally Responsive Afterschool Programs
by Lissette Castillo

Photo by Lisette Castillo

By definition, “culturally responsive” education must, among other things, “use the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them.” In addition, “challenging racial and cultural stereotypes, prejudices, racism and other forms of … oppression” is a defining element of the term, coined by Dr. Geneva Gay.

Considering the current chaotic state of our nation, the miseducation of children of color and the widening opportunity gap—often erroneously called the achievement gap—it’s time to eradicate the consistent and oppressive structures of racism in educational programs.

Students of African and/or Indigenous descent (DAIP) deserve programs exhibiting a range of practices that honor their identities, linguistic assets and cultures—in addition to de-centering whiteness from our learning spaces and collective learning, and grounding that is centered within the context of culture and race.

Noting what occurred at the U. S. Capitol in January, we need our local officials, district leaders and partners to work in unison to address the immediate needs of communities of color by providing us with safe spaces where our authentic, whole selves are protected and nourished, and our presence, histories and realities are affirmed. All of us need to be committed to understanding, challenging, and fighting racial inequalities in our partnerships and OST programming through developing curriculum, programming and learning/working spaces where DAIP children and staff can finally thrive.

Some organizations’ unwillingness to deeply examine their cultures and practices through an anti-racist lens poses challenges for our children to succeed and makes it difficult for staff to bring their best selves forward in service of youth. We desperately need a culture shift in learning spaces that supports pedagogy, curriculum, programming and training for DAIP staff with responsiveness and compassion that serves to heal our communities.

OST frontline staff are pillars in cultivating the intellectual curiosity and well-being of DAIP children. To purposefully fund transformative OST experiences, funders and grant makers must do more to understand the intricacies of student and staff identities and demographics. The process through which OST programs with districts receive funds should emphasize that organizations exhibit culturally responsive programming and demographically representative staff.

As a leader in NAA’s Professional Learning Community for Emerging Leaders of Color, I’ve witnessed how transformative organizational change demands that leaders provide inclusive working spaces wherein professionals of color can engage their work through a critical race lens and build meaningful connections with other colleagues of color through collective sense-making. Leaders have a responsibility to lead with transparency, empathy and a keen understanding of community needs.

The only way forward is for leaders to listen, acknowledge educational inequalities, and restructure our children’s learning and play spaces by dismantling ableism and oppressive educational systems through their institutional cultures, policies, programming and practices.

As children re-enter schools and families’ needs for OST support increases, school districts, organizations and funders have an opportunity and responsibility to reimagine programming and staff training. Pre-pandemic inequities, and now COVID-19, have exacerbated and widened the opportunity gap. As we attempt to recover, OST agencies and districts must develop culturally responsive strategies to rebuild healthy working and learning spaces for social transformation.

We need to identify the most vulnerable and marginalized groups of children and identify culturally responsive mechanisms to support their learning and enrichment opportunities. We need compassionate leaders who listen to community needs.

We do not need “experts.” We need people who see the humanity of others; who see children as their own. We do not need “white saviors.” We do not need or want DAIP people who think they have nothing to learn.

Instead, we need leaders to do internal audits of themselves for biases and prejudices before they ever attempt to lead anyone else. The pandemic has unquestionably displayed the racial inequities in our learning communities and will continue to intensify the racial and economic disparities already disproportionately affecting our communities. We must rebuild real culturally responsive OST programming and partnerships which address the racial and ethnic disparities in all educational spaces.

Lissette Castillo is Director of Amigos Community School for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts and Managing Director of Professional Learning for The BlackPrint Inc. Castillo is an NAA Executive member and a member of NAA’s Emerging Leaders of Color 2019-2020 cohort. She has a steadfast commitment to the liberation and self-determination of African and Indigenous peoples and is zealous about challenging and fighting racial inequalities in education in part through the development of culturally responsive curricula and programming that are family- and youth-driven.
This article was first published in the digital edition of Afterschool Today, The Official Publication of the National Afterschool Association, Spring 2021. www.naaweb.org

If you'd like to share resources with your colleagues, tell us how you are coping and healing, and helping the youth and families that you work with to heal, and continuing to find joy while we are physically apart, please submit a blog post by emailing. Here are some tips to help get you started.

If we approached the task as the "village" . . .

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 18:56:43 GMT

A Reflection by Mia Klinger. September 2020

The obstacles to returning to classrooms are not teachers and increasing the number of measures in the name of accountability, like having school personnel work from empty classrooms, neither improve teaching nor keep children safer.

Aging school buildings with their windows stuck shut for years cannot meet the demands of this moment.

This is not about teachers or their commitment to their work.

COVID-19 is the issue and districts must now reckon with the many inequalities that it lays bare.

Private schools are finding solutions; families with means are schooling through pods or finding the childcare support that allows parents to work. For most of our students, these are not options.

Some districts have been upfront about the difficulties maintaining the six feet of spacing between students that are needed to stay healthy, and they will struggle with children who cannot show compliance to this or other requirements because they are traumatized and reactive.

Our children are flooded by the fears of their adults- caregivers and teachers, who cannot provide the message that underscores all effective teaching, "You are safe here."

Outdoor space is only a temporary solution in New England, but temporary is not a waste of time or energy.

I had children in person in camp this summer. They were desperate for group experiences and for engagement. I was equally in need of their laughter, their energy, and the chance to do what I love- teach!

Administrators talk of having only limited outdoor space and describe their challenges with staffing. These schools are in cities rich with campuses and green spaces, many owned by people who have reunion canopy tents on hand that could immediately be given a new and meaningful purpose. The schools sit beside churches, temples, and businesses with parking lots and the additional rooms that are so in need.

There is a talented cohort of out-of-school time staff who are without buildings and maybe soon without jobs but, they are not short on mission. Let the classroom teachers focus on foundational skills and on students who are most at need. Let the OST people support the work of the specialist teachers with the mission of STEAM and social justice/social studies and the arts. They already do these things so well.

There will be a need to confront inequalities in pay, benefits, and resources, but that conversation is long overdue.

If we approached the task as the "village", "where" and "how" can be solved, even under these extraordinary circumstances. No solution would be perfect.

The challenges caused by the virus and the long history of disparities are real. But maybe, something would be learned that might lead us not back to what was there before, but to something that better and more truly met the needs of children and families.

School districts are faced with enormous challenges, but this is not about the teachers.

Throughout her career, Mia has been a special education teacher/administrator/consultant and an out-of-school time provider. She co-founded Daybreak, a program operated by the Cambridge Camping Association, and has been the director for the past 31 years. Her work focuses on children from under-resourced circumstances who demonstrate social, emotional, and behavioral challenges related to trauma and disability.

If you'd like to share resources with your colleagues, tell us how you are coping and healing, and helping the youth and families that you work with to heal, and continuing to find joy while we are physically apart, please submit a blog post by emailing. Here are some tips to help get you started.

Why are we still having to explain what we mean when we say (even in chalk) Black Lives Matter?

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 13:25:52 GMT

By Mercedes Soto

On Sunday, May 31st, my partner, 12-year-old son and I participated in the “Wee Chalk the Walk: A Family Day of Action for Black Lives,” to chalk messages of love, hope and support on our city sidewalks. We walked up the block to City Hall, where we wrote the names of many, but not all, of the Black Americans who have been killed at the hands of police and vigilantes. A photo of our chalk memorial was included in a Cambridge Day article.

On Monday, June 1st, City Hall reopened to staff. As I returned from my morning walk, I noticed that someone had erased the word “Black” from “Black Lives Matter.” My first reaction was shock, anger, then (after a few deep breaths) curiosity. Why are we still having to explain what we mean when we say Black Lives Matter?

Nearly seven years ago, after the acquittal of the aggressor who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin while he was walking home from the store, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi founded the Movement for Black Lives and first used the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.

Our friend recently wrote: “It’s the recent trifecta of a black man killed by vigilantes while out jogging, a black woman killed by police in her bed even though they had already caught the person suspected of a crime, and a black man brutally murdered in the public eye by a police officer who was known for brutality yet remained unchecked by Minneapolis’ government that has the rage and tears spilling over in the black community. All of this happening with the president of this country eagerly using the long-held code word for black men to incite white supremacist reaction. Every black mother cried when they heard Mr. Floyd pleaded for his life and wanted his mother … it was all of our black sons calling out for us.”

Each time these acts of state sponsored violence happen, the black community is re-traumatized. The deep wounds are opened and the heartbreak laid bare. The righteous anger burns as people take to the streets once more to demand justice and change. How are we explaining what is happening to our children in ways that are age appropriate?

I am having a hard time understanding why in 2020, after so many tragic deaths, for some people this affirmation of the value of black lives remains controversial. If you have a problem with this statement, I want to encourage you to be curious and ask questions. When we affirm that Black Lives Matter, we are not saying that they matter more than other lives. We are exclaiming that black lives matter as much as white lives.

For 400 years, black Americans have endured the systematic devaluing of their lives and bodies at the hands of people who have built economic and political systems of oppression based on race, reinforced by state-sponsored violence. The rate at which black Americans are killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans.

During this global pandemic, people from around the world are coming together and taking to the streets once again to demand that this country value black lives.

James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Affirming the value of the lives of those who have been harmed by the systems that benefit white people is the first step in acknowledging that we have to change. As long as black lives are at risk, all of our lives are at risk. Until Black Lives Matter, none of our lives matter. Our liberation is interconnected.

As I mentioned, we live up the block from City Hall and have plenty of chalk. So we’ll continue to write this message as many times as it takes for understanding to sink in. #BlackLivesMatter

If you'd like to share resources with your colleagues, tell us how you are coping and healing, and helping the youth and families that you work with to heal, and continuing to find joy while we are physically apart, please submit a blog post by emailing. Here are some tips to help get you started.

Keep Stretching and Practicing with Compassion

Fri, 08 May 2020 22:32:43 GMT

By Melinda Barbosa and bo lembo

Hey Compassion Champions!
Many of you "zoomed" into our workshop on April 30th.
You lifted our moods and made us feel hopeful for the future.
We appreciate your honesty about this challenging moment and how hard it is to talk about our feelings, especially when it feels like we don't know where to plant our feet.

We prepare and think a lot about these spaces and practice being present in the moment with other humans (Youth Work 101!), which means sometimes some of the "technical" content gently gets woven through the workshop. We believe many of these things you already know, but may not have words for it yet. Here are the slides.

Keep reading and you will find more journaling prompts!

Keep Stretching...
Below you'll find our take-aways from yesterday, along with practices you can use to keep building your compassion.

1. Self reflection is the secret to being able to better understand others. The more you understand yourself, the more compassion you can develop for yourself, and see the best in others.
PRACTICE
Journaling Prompt: Write 20 "I am" statements. Stay away from judgmental statements, use self-compassion to rephrase your statements.
Example: I am someone who worries too much about other people.
Compassionate rephrase: I am someone who cares deeply about the well being of others.

2. Feelings and emotions are real. They are information about what is happening in the world around us.
PRACTICE
Activity/Prompt: Use the Emotions Wheel (Thanks, Jill!) or the Mood Meter App. Identify all of the emotions you are feeling. Ask yourself the following questions:
·       What might have happened to cause these feeling(s)?
·       What usually makes me feel this way?
·       What’s going on that I'm feeling this way?
·       What was I doing just before I started feeling this way? Who was I with?
·       What do I need right now? What can I do to support myself?

Be kind to yourself.
We are in a pandemic.
All of your feelings are part of being beautifully human, and you deserve to be able to feel them.

Why is Everything So Hard?

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 19:05:24 GMT

Alice Cohen shares her infinite wisdom to help us understand what is happening in our brains and bodies during this historic pandemic. She helps us understand more about our how our feelings of disenfranchised grief are being processed by our limbic system. She explains why we're so distracted and anxious and how our executive functioning is impaired.

Watch the video! Alice answers the questions:
Why do things feel so hard? And what do we need to get through this challenging time?

We need connection.
We need mindfulness.
We need to slow down and breathe.

We need to treat the impact of social isolation in our homes and in our communities.
We need self-compassion!
We have to let go sometimes.
We need to self-soothe regularly. We're going to "lose it." And that's ok. We can regroup when we can't cope. We're modeling that for young people.
We need to play and laugh.
Do things that make you feel good in your body.

Remember, things feel hard, because they are!
Be Well!
And thank you, Alice!

If you'd like to share resources with your colleagues, tell us how you are coping and healing, and helping the youth and families that you work with to heal, and continuing to find joy while we are physically apart, please submit a blog post by emailing. Here are some tips to help get you started.

Socially Connected, Movement from a Distance

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 19:58:22 GMT

by Marlees West, Program Director, Frisoli Youth Center

As an extrovert, movement has long been my only solitary activity. Long runs help me center myself and release some of my excess energy before I connect with others. In the last year, pilates has helped me to get ready for a day of: connecting to staff and young people and families; talking and learning, and teaching and thinking. By myself, at the end of the day, pilates helps me process everything that I learned, heard, and felt.

Like all of us, physical distancing has rocked my world.
I no longer have all those in-person social interactions to feed my extroverted soul. So, I created “Socially Distant Pilates People." I made my daily exercise routine a social time, initially with just a small group of 4. Over the last few weeks, our community has now grown to include more than 20 people. We 'FaceTime' ten minutes a day, once a day, every day, to do pilates together. That’s it! But that short ten minutes (followed by a virtual dance party) has felt really good. It’s kept me connected to my own identity as a teacher and facilitator (and now as an amateur pilates instructor!) and to my friends and family and friends of friends. It’s quickly become the best part of my day, lifting my mood and energy, and jump starting my creativity. I feel connected.

I started to wonder why it feels so good and why it feels like it works so well.
Reflecting with friends and with myself, helped me to identify the following five key ingredients:

Keep the format simple. It’s ten minutes every day, That’s it! During this crazy time in our lives, we all need some predictability. I have 2 times we do pilates. That’s it! It means that there’s one thing in the day, during this time of uncertainty, when we know what to expect.
Let the network grow. It started off with 4 friends and family members who I trusted not to make fun of me as I stumbled through facilitating an arm workout. It has become a community of more than 20 folks (spanning 5 generations!) who are old friends, new friends, someone’s sister, or another one’s daughter. That’s a big part of the value - being in community with the people outside of our household, or even our family. It’s easy in our isolation to seek connection only with those closest to us. Our middle school youth know better than all of us that relationships (both new and old) are important. Connection is a huge part of what keeps us healthy and happy. Connecting with those outside our closest circle also helps us to stay healthy.
Create active roles! Like any good youth worker knows, rotating roles increases buy-in to an activity and helps keep routines fresh and exciting. We have a different DJ every time for the dance party, a new person might do a roll call. Sharing leadership makes me less afraid to try a new flow as I get better at describing what I am doing with my body.
We celebrate! We cheer each other on for accomplishments, birthdays, for big moves!
It’s always a choice, but it’s also non-negotiable. I miss the structure of going into Frisoli, of staff arriving at 2:15 and youth arriving at 3:00, of traveling for sports games on Fridays. As human beings, we need structure, and without that structure the number of choices can overwhelm us. To have activities that we can’t move around provides us with a sense of safety. We meet at a set time and it’s not up for debate. Everyone can answer the call or not - there’s no pressure or judgement!

While I don’t know how long our physical distancing will last, I am thinking about what lessons I can take back with me when we are back together in the same space. Physical distancing has made me a little bit braver and helped me to try something new. I wonder what aspects of being home create a sense of safety for us and how we can recreate that feeling in out of school time when we are together again. And I hope we all find small and big ways to be braver in our connections while we remain apart.
Until we can be physically together again, I recommend some actions you can take:

Call a family member who may be quarantining alone,
Organize a group call with a new group of friends.
Ask your household-mates if you can share a new skill with them, or if they can share one with you!

In whatever way feels right and possible for you right now, let’s all find a way to stay connected.

If you'd like to share resources with your colleagues, tell us how you are coping and healing, and helping the youth and families that you work with to heal, and continuing to find joy while we are physically apart, please submit a blog post by emailing. Here are some tips to help get you started.

Collectively Grieving What We Have Lost

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 11:23:17 GMT

By Mercedes Soto, Impact Evaluation Advisor, Agenda for Children OST

Yesterday, when I was walking and listening to a podcast, in the April Fool's Day early morning snow flurry, I saw this colorful child's drawing zip tied to a tree. The message "We are in this fight together so we must remember to be kind to each other." brought me to tears. I was overcome by this wave of grief for all of the people and the ways of life we've lost and the people and ways of life we are losing.

As we enter another week of this strange new reality, many of us are adjusting and establishing new (hopefully healthy) routines. We are staying home and only venturing outside for the essentials. while we try to stand at least 6 feet away from the next person in the aisle. There is tape on the floor in the check out lines to help us mark the "safer" distances between us. So many people are afraid and anxious. I can see it in their body language and how they avoid eye contact. Even though, we are feeling a lot of sadness and grief and pain, for the time being, we cannot reach out to shake hands and offer hugs. I try to smile and send love and compassion to them from a safe distance. I am so grateful for the brave people who are delivering food, medicine, and supplies, stocking the shelves, checking us out, cleaning the door handles and surfaces. I am grateful for the essential workers who are providing food for children while schools are closed, continuing sanitation services, taking care of people in emergency rooms and hospitals, and homeless shelters. I am grateful for the teachers who are sending daily writing prompts and emails to parents and students, scheduling one on one FaceTime or regular phone calls, and classroom video conferences. I am grateful for the messages from after school programs who are sending encouragement and resources and activities for children and youth to do at home. And I am grieving.

Every day, I am trying to: practice gratitude, exercise, drink enough water, eat greens (not just chocolate). I am reaching out to friends and family and trying to be fully present for them when they reach out to me. I am trying cultivate joy and to focus on the positive things, and to laugh and dance. I am trying to keep focused on work, posting resources and inspiration on social media, and attending virtual meetings. I am homeschooling my son. And I am grieving.

Thank you, Melinda Barbosa, for reminding me that "If we don't name our grief, and feel our grief, we cannot heal our grief." I want to heal my grief and I want to support us all in healing our collective grief, so that we can continue to be here for the children who are growing up in this new reality, the children who remind us that we are in this fight together, and to be kind to each other.

To that end, I recommend that you read and listen to:
That Discomfort You are Feeling is Grief (by Scott Berinato in the Harvard Business Review)
On Grief and Finding Meaning with Brené Brown and David Kessler (Unlocking Us Podcast)

If you'd like to share resources with your colleagues, tell us how you are coping and healing, and helping the youth and families that you work with to heal, and continuing to find joy while we are physically apart, please submit a blog post by emailing. Here are some tips to help get you started.

Free Resources for Home Learning

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 14:17:02 GMT

Dear OST Community,
We are living through unprecedented closings of schools, out-of-school time programs, and non-essential municipal services. Our daily lives have been disrupted and many of us are worried about our children's learning, and supporting our families, our neighbors, and the children, youth and families our programs serve.

It is important to take this time, when we have been taken out of our regular routines, to reflect on what is most important and what can we learn from this experience. What are the ways that you are taking care of yourself so that you can care for others?

If you want to share stories about how you are staying connected while practicing social distancing, how you are supporting your co-workers virtually and how you are taking care of yourself during this time of uncertainty, please feel free to write to us and tag us in your social media posts @agendachildren.

In the meantime, we'll share resources that may be helpful for you and your families. Stay safe. Stay connected. We are here!

CPSD@Home - Resources to support student learning at home
MIT Full STEAM Ahead - Thematic STEAM lesson packages
Cambridge Public Library - Free digital services
12 Virtual Museum Tours - Free virtual tours
PBS Mass Learning Resources - Free curricula for educators
Scholastic Learn at Home - Free teaching resources
National Geographic Kids - Free, fun learning resources for children
STEM Resources from TERC - Free STEM curriculum and activities
Edutopia: How to Support Home Learning in the Early Grades - article
PBS Kids Lab Educational Resources - more Free curricula for educators
Parent Toolkit - one-stop resource produced and developed with parents in mind
Go Noodle - Resources to promote movement and mindfulness at home
Boston Children's Museum Educator Resources - Curriculum kits and field trip information
The Exploratorium - Free Online Learning resources and digital library
NASA Afterschool Universe - Free STEM curriculum and activity ideas
SEDL: Afterschool Lesson Database - Free sample lesson plans for OST

Click here to share your favorites with us!

Social Change Through Storytelling

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 00:49:37 GMT

By Melinda Barbosa, Quality Coach and Trainer, Agenda for Children OST

We know storytelling can have long-term beneficial impacts in our work by creating a sense of belonging and connectedness, allowing us to reflect on our personal identities, and to build communities that create social change.

When you have deadlines looming, progress reports to write, and a new curriculum unit to put together, it can feel like there’s not enough time to just talk. Storytelling is more than talking. It’s a practice in deep listening and noticing within ourselves to uncover what is actually important, and asking us to tend to the emerging needs of the group.

Keep reading for some tips on how to bring storytelling to your team:

Start with the right question: We call it the “Courage Card” question. You’re afraid it might be a little bit too personal, but it’s the brave question to ask to learn more about someone. Sometimes the best question isn’t actually a question, but an invitation. This allows people to share as much or as little as they feel comfortable doing. Example: Don’t ask: “What’s your favorite childhood memory?” Instead say: “Tell me about a time as a child when you felt joyful.”
Slow down to go fast: However long you think it will take for people to answer a question, double it. I made the mistake recently of giving an entire group 20 minutes to tell their story about their professional journeys. An hour later, when they were finished, we were able to breeze through the action items and get it down to work. We work more efficiently when we feel a sense of belonging to the group.
Incorporate breathing, movement, and other mindfulness exercises: Stories connect us to content, making facts and theories come alive in our minds and opening us up to new possibilities. They can also trigger physical and emotional responses. This podcast on trauma and movement is a good reminder about how movement can heal.
Journal, Journal, Journal: The most important story we can tell is the one we tell to ourselves. Making time and space for your team to process their feelings, thoughts and dreams allows them to create new pathways in their brain for learning.

If you make one resolution for this New Year, make it about stories. Tell more stories. Listen to more to stories that are different from your own. Allow your courage to roar as you open up and share more about your purpose, your goals, and maybe a little bit about your fears. Or what if you listened with curiosity turned all the way up? What could you hear? What could you learn? What change would be possible for you and those around you?

Bo Lembo and I will be teaming together this spring to bring you an AFCOST storytelling workshop (from our Symposium sessions on journaling and storytelling for social change) where you can learn more about how to use storytelling with all members of your community to connect and create a shared sense of purpose. Also, if you want to see how you can use storytelling with young people, you can check out this 2018 Blog I wrote.

Love and Leadership

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 19:11:40 GMT

On the last morning of the 2019 OST Symposium, Vanessa Fisher, Director of the Frisoli Youth Center, led a workshop entitled, Love and Leadership. She shared her own journey to coming to understand that the real power of leadership is when you can express love and compassion in your interactions within the workplace while still getting the work done and accomplishing the mission.

Click on this link to read Vanessa's handout and a participant's "take back" from one of the workshop exercises. We can all apply the wisdom shared in Vanessa's handout to any situation in which we are called to exercise leadership (which is a mindset, not just a position).

How do you bring love into your leadership?

If you're interested in attending a future offering of this workshop please contact Barbara Murphy-Warrington at Barbara@agendaforchildrenost.org.

The Path to College Success

Tue, 24 Sep 2019 17:42:38 GMT

In this video, a single Colombian mother tells us about the process of supporting her son to reach college after having faced a number of obstacles. She also tells us about how a CSI College Success Coach played a key role in the success of her son.

3 OST Lessons from Mr. Rogers

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 07:00:00 GMT

by Jess Leach, Community Coordination Associate at Agenda for Children

Photo: Fred Rogers Company

Anyone else who’s ever worked in a summer program has almost certainly experienced the same day as this one: It started extremely humid and turned into torrential downpour. My throat burned from reaching my voice over hundreds of children’s, my limbs lagged, and my head throbbed… there was no word for how tired my body felt. That night, I decided the only thing I wanted to do - the only thing I could do - was sit in a dark, cool theater and watch a movie.

As if by divine intervention, the next showtime at Somerville Theatre was for Won’t You Be My Neighbor, a documentary film chronicling the life of Fred Rogers, a beloved children’s program host who began charming young ones on television from my parents’ generation in the late ‘60s through my own childhood up until the year 2000.

What was intended to be an escape from work then turned into an hour and 45 minutes of unexpected professional development. All the characters I cherished as a preschooler - King Friday, Daniel Striped Tiger, Henrietta Pussycat, Lady Aberlin - became facilitators in the ultimate Mr. Rogers training on how to be an effective leader and communicator with young people, even when you feel like you’ve never been so tired. I left the movie feeling so reinvigorated and inspired, I was actually excited to go back to work the next day to apply some of the lessons to my teaching. Here are three of my biggest takeaways and how I see them fitting into OST work:

Consistency is key

Every episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood started the exact same way. The unassuming, mild-mannered Mr. Rogers would enter his TV home singing the sweetest tune: “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…” He’d take off his jacket and loafers and replace them with a cozy cardigan and tennis shoes. In the film, this routine is explained as his way of showing viewers he is comfortable with them, and he wants them to feel comfortable too.

As an educator of young children, I can now more deeply appreciate this moment as an exercise of consistency - a hallmark of the show. In my experience, all types of children crave and benefit from structure. They want to know what to expect from adults and trust that those adults can deliver on those expectations. Mr. Rogers was creating trust and relationship simply by showing up and doing the same thing every episode.

Seeing this play out in the movie made me think of how I am consistent and predictable to my students, and how I can be better. What is my equivalent of taking off my loafers? How can I make the safety of a routine more fun and stimulating (like Rogers does with his song)?

Let your guard down

The greatest treasure of Won’t You Be My Neighbor? isn’t the tear-jerking montages nor the endearing old clips from the show - it’s the revelation that Mr. Rogers didn’t always have the love for himself that he poured out to everyone else each day on screen. He had plenty of fears and doubts, proving that he is in fact a human being like the rest of us. More interestingly, though, he wasn’t too ashamed to hide these feelings from his audience. In fact, he broadcasted them in a very Mr. Rogers way: through the voices of his puppets. Daniel Striped Tiger, who lived in the clock in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, was most often his mouthpiece for these feelings.

In one clip shown in the film, Daniel is singing a song that he feels like a fake and doesn’t really like himself, and the song turns into a duet with Lady Aberlin who assures him that he’s loved for being exactly who he is. Interviews reveal that this song truly came from Mr. Rogers' heart, and he wanted to send the message that these feelings are okay.

Being honest about tough feelings doesn’t make you weak or mean you’re admitting failure at your job. When shared with intention, these truthful moments are teaching moments as well.

Can we effectively teach social/emotional skills if we don’t model them ourselves? I always ask my students to use their words when they’re feeling frustrated or sad, but how often do I do the same? Next time I’m feeling negatively, I want to not only be honest about it, but be an example at dealing with it.

Time is our gift

One of the most prominent themes of the documentary is how Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was, and still is, so different from other children’s programming. Most TV made for kids is fast, bright, colorful, slapstick and silly. Mr. Rogers’ show was anything but. The film explains how he used time meaningfully and wasn’t afraid to be quiet and still, to let moments linger, and he never shied away from being serious. In one clip, he literally sets an egg timer for one minute and tells his audience: “This is how long a minute is!” letting it just tick and tock with no added visual or commentary.

We live so much of our lives in a hurry to get from one thing to the next, and kids are no exception. Out-of-school time programming is an opportunity to slow down and let them enjoy childhood. We aren’t as limited by class schedules or curriculum, which means we can allow social/emotional learning to not only take place but actually sink in. It’s okay if snack is five minutes behind because we’re learning to be a community and clean up together. It’s okay if fuse beads is on hold because two first graders are working out a conflict. It’s okay if nothing goes according to our plans, because no moment is wasted when we devote our energy to helping young people feel supported and accepted.

Author

Jess Leach began her journey in Cambridge OST at Agassiz Baldwin Community, where she teaches in the 1st-5th grade program. She joined the Agenda for Children OST team in early 2018 as the Community Coordination Associate, where she helps oversee professional development and improve communications with youth workers.

Youth Voice: Relationships with Staff and Self-Discovery

Wed, 11 Jul 2018 07:00:00 GMT

Last week, we met with Janna, Asia & Norah, three middle schoolers enrolled at the Gately Youth Center and asked them how they felt about relationships with youth workers. They spoke about how some youth workers became like family, helping them overcome challenges and supporting them to reach their goals. As Janna told us, "I feel like its my family because every time I have a problem they work it out with me. I feel safe here."

Watching this video prompts us to reflect on how we, as youth workers, intentionally build positive relationships with young people:

How do you create an atmosphere that fosters positive staff/youth relationship building?
Where do you see evidence of young people discovering who they are based on your relationships with them?

The power of positive adult/youth relationships might get lost in the day to day, yet we must never forget what strength-actions like encouragement, lending an objective listening ear, patience and individualized assistance build inside of young people.

Connecting Books and (Reluctant) Readers

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 12:47:45 GMT

by Emily Meyer, Youth Services Librarian at Cambridge Public Library

One of the first things I learned in library school was S. R. Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science:

Books are for use.
Every reader his/her/their book.
Every book its reader.
Save the time of the reader.
The library is a growing organism.

Although libraries and the role of librarians have changed since 1931 when Ranganathan created these laws, I think they still very much apply to my job, particularly number two when helping upper school patrons who might be reluctant readers. Maybe they would rather play soccer or watch TV. Maybe English isn’t their first language, and it’s a struggle to get through a whole book. Maybe they think reading is boring. Whatever the case, I know that there’s SOMETHING in the library that will make their eyes light up. It’s my job to try to figure out what that is.

Since I know it isn’t always feasible for upper school students to get to the library on their own over the summer or for summer programs to visit the library on a regular basis, many of you might be in the position of helping an upper schooler find a book to read. Below are a couple of tips and tricks to keep in mind as you help connect readers with books:

The better you know the student, the easier it is to find a book that will interest them. Find out what they love, if they have hobbies, if they speak other languages, if they play sports or musical instruments or create art. Then look for a book that ties into that thing they love.

If possible, find out at least one book they have read in the past that they have enjoyed. This will help give you some idea of what other books they might like as well as give you an idea of approximate reading ability. If they say they loved The Hunger Games, you would probably want to offer different suggestions than if they said the only books they enjoy are the Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series.

Don’t judge their reading choices. Reading is reading, especially in the summer when they have the time and the freedom to pick their own books. If they want to reread the entire Babysitters Club series for the 17th time, fine. If they want to read only graphic novels, great! If they want to read a book on dog breeds, perfect. The important thing is that they read SOMETHING during the two months they are out of school, so give them the agency to pick the books on their own and refrain from adding your own thoughts and comments.

Take your cues from their peers. The best way to get a reluctant reader to pick up a book is if it’s suggested by their friends. Especially if you aren’t familiar with the current most popular books, keep your ears open when kids are talking to each other and you might pick up some tried and true book suggestions.

Let them see you reading and/or getting excited talking about books. Enthusiasm is contagious! If you just read the funniest graphic novel in the world, tell them about it. Or even just leave it out and available for them to stumble over on their own. If you’re taking a coffee break or lunch break and will be in sight of the kids you work with, bring a book with you. They know you’re cool, and if they see you reading by choice, they might start thinking that reading can be cool too.

Don’t be afraid to use internet resources! There’s nothing wrong with googling “popular books for middle schoolers,” but there are lots of other great online tools to find book suggestions for kids. Here are just a few:
- Cambridge Public Library Book Lists: The CPL youth services librarians put together new book lists each year for a variety of age ranges, genres, formats, etc. Reference them! Print them! Use them!
- us, reading blog: The CPL has a free summer reading program just for students entering 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, and its main purpose is to create an online reading community for upper schoolers while school is out. Participants write reviews of books they read over the summer, and they can win some great prizes just for writing them! It’s a great way for kids to see what their peers are reading to get an idea for what they might enjoy too.
- OurStoryKids and OurStoryTeen: These are two awesome resources created by the We Need Diverse Books team to help kids and teens find books with diverse content and/or by diverse authors and illustrators. It compiles booklists tailored to each person by having you complete a short 5-question quiz about what interests you.
- Goodreads: You don’t need to create an account to use Goodreads to help generate book ideas, particularly if you know at least one title that the student enjoyed. Many books on Goodreads include a pretty extensive list of great readalikes if you google the book title followed by “goodreads."
- NoveList: This is one of the many databases that the CPL pays for so you will need your library card and pin to access it outside of the library. It offers all sorts of ways to get book suggestions, from Title Readalikes to Author Readalikes to an Advanced Search function that allows you to select different options from reading level to grade level to author’s cultural identity to page number count.

Use your local librarian! When in doubt, please feel free to call any of the Cambridge public library locations and ask for ideas. We always like it best when we can talk directly to the student in question, but we are happy to do our best with you over the phone. You can also contact me directly at emeyer@cambridgema.gov with questions, to set up library visits, or to get more tailored upper school reading suggestions.

Happy summer and happy reading!

Author

Emily Meyer is a youth services librarian at the Cambridge Public Library. She is the library liaison to the Cambridge Upper Schools, runs a monthly STEAM book club for upper schoolers, and divides her time between the Children’s Room and the Teen Room at the Main Library. Her favorite thing about her job is seeing a young patron’s face light up after connecting them with the perfect book.

The Power of the Outdoors

Wed, 09 May 2018 07:00:00 GMT

By Jeneen Mucci, Director of Program Quality and Training, Cambridge Youth Programs

Jeneen leading a workshop on outdoor education at our 2017 OST Symposium

As a little girl I was always drawn to the outdoors. Exploring my backyard or the woods with my canvas backpack and a thermos of chocolate milk, I would hike around, turn rotting logs over to see who made their underside their home, would listen for the chorus of birds that draped the canopy of trees, and I would be content just to be a part of the living and breathing landscape that allowed me to be part of something bigger than myself. There was a mysterious pull that brought me into a world that was exciting, challenging and new. It brought me a sense of peace and most of all, it brought me closer to myself.

This is what the outdoors can bring to young people. There is an excitement and nervousness with the outdoor world that can challenge and change a young person while, at the same time, bring a sense of peace and well-being. For me, the outdoors has been the ultimate classroom and its lessons the taught by the most challenging teacher. There is a power in this place and this power has the ability to test who we are, who we want to be and how we move not only in nature but through our lives.

Your Brain On Nature

When you spend time out-of-doors how do you feel? Do you feel calm, grounded, less anxious, healthy? The positive feelings that many of us get from being outside is not a coincidence. There is a lot of research and data that speaks to the effects of nature on our well-being. Researchers have noted that the benefits of nature and the outdoors affects our health both physically and emotionally.

Being in a natural space, doing things in the outdoors, even looking at the color green has proven benefits on our well-being which has included:

Better Academic Performance
Enhanced Attention
Increased Engagement and Enthusiasm
Improved Behavior
Healthy Babies
Healthy Eyes and Vitamin D levels
Increased Physical Activity
Social-emotional well-being

Infographic on the benefits of spending time outside, from the Nature Kids Institute

Why Nature? Two Minutes, Two Hours, and Two Days...

Why does nature have such a positive effect on our health and wellness? Researchers have determined that being in nature for as little as two minutes has positive effects on stress reduction (these effects were observed by the monitoring of muscle tension, blood pressure and brain activity in those participating in outdoor activities). What’s more is that two hours in the outdoors has been proven to improve memory and attention span by 20% and those spending two or more consecutive days in the outdoors have shown signs of increasing levels of cancer fighting white blood cells by 50%!

"The great outdoors is an amazing classroom for learning, playing and being."

Get Outside

Taking young people into our natural spaces is an opportunity for them to connect with the natural world, build new skills and community, challenge themselves to take positive risks, learn about themselves, and to be in a place that brings them health and well-being. Do you want to bring the outdoors to your young people and don’t know where to start? There are many different organizations, training opportunities and resources in Cambridge, Boston and beyond that can support your learning and comfort with the outdoors and will provide you with tools, strategies and curricula. The following agencies and organizations are great resources to not only know what is in our area but also how they can support the work you do for young people at all challenge levels:

Appalachian Mountain Club-Youth Opportunities Program -they have training, programs and even free gear!
MA Audubon - for info on sanctuaries across the state
Friends of the Fells Reservation - Medford, Winchester, Stoneham
Harold Parker State Forest - Andover, North Andover, North Reading and Middleton)
Blue Hills Reservation - Quincy, Braintree, Canton, Dedham, Milton, and Randolph
Parks in Cambridge

Going outside can be a safe, accessible and exciting experience for both your young people and your staff. Knowing why it is important to take them outside is as crucial as what you do with them in these natural spaces. Share the experience of being outside and the benefits of the learning in the outdoors will follow you and your young people wherever they go.

Author

Jeneen Mucci is the Director of Program Quality and Training with Cambridge Youth Programs and a longtime lover of the great outdoors.

4 games to get kids excited about mindfulness

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 14:44:29 GMT

By Jess Leach, Community Coordination Associate at Agenda for Children, with Robyn Ginsberg, inclusion facilitator at Peabody 2-5

What is mindfulness? If you’re unfamiliar with the practice, that word might conjure an image of meditation - someone humming in total solitude, their mind empty, void of any complicated thought. When you see mindfulness in this way, it can feel impossible to involve young people. Robyn Ginsberg, inclusion facilitator at the Peabody 2-5 after school program, was experiencing that exact frustration when she first registered for Zach Soloman’s “Mindfulness for Kids” training in March.

“When I began working in the Peabody 2-5 program last fall, I was interested in exposing the children to mindful movement practices, but in somes ways this felt daunting,” she wrote to me in an email. “I struggled to put my ideas into actions.”

Zach’s approach to mindfulness for youth is that it should meet them at their level; oftentimes they need to experience it as a game to engage. This opened her to new ways to bring the practice back to her program.

Before, Robyn was struggling to find the “buy-in” for mindfulness. She didn’t want the children at her program to see it as a punishment, but rather an opportunity to build a relationship with mindfulness that would have a “healthy and positive beginning.” To accomplish that, she's had to adjust to be more open in her strategy.

"I felt inspired to play around with my approach to mindfulness."

She noted a story that Zach told about using mindfulness in difficult moments with a young person he used to work with that also had an impact on her ideas about mindfulness. In one instance, Zach had used mindful breathing to bring the child out of his anger and back into the present.

“This was a great example of how breath can be a tool that youth workers and teachers use to help children become more aware of bodily sensations as a bridge to identifying uncomfortable emotions and exploring their roots,” she wrote. “That story will stay with me.”

In the few weeks since the training has ended, Robyn has tried some new approaches to the mindfulness practice at Peabody 2-5. Here are four mindfulness games she’s used at her program (some inspired by examples played at the training):

1

2

3

4

Observe & Report: Have your group look around the room and find things that are green, red, yellow, squares, circles, triangles, etc. and ask them to write down what they find.

Guess The Object: The whole group sits in a circle, two at a time taking turns to sit in the middle back-to-back with their eyes closed. One person gets an object to describe, while other person guesses what it is. The rest of the group observes.

Imagine If: The groups walks around the room at different paces, while a teacher prompts movement such as: “Imagine you are on you way into a movie that you are so excited to see and you are running late. Now imagine you are on your way into a dentist appointment. How does our walk change? What does it feel like?”

Thoughts & Feelings: Ask the group to focus on breath, and notice each time they become distracted by a thought or a feeling. Ask them to count feelings on one hand and thoughts on another. Teachers can also add another layer to this where they note whether the thought and/or feeling was pleasant or unpleasant.

Upcoming Training

Author

What are your youth worker super powers?

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 07:00:00 GMT

By Melina O'Grady, Quality Coach and facilitator at Agenda for Children

As a facilitator of youth development training for the past two years, I’ve noticed a few things. My own middle school years were a chaotic battle for self and a search for place in school and the social realm. I saw most adults as barriers rather than allies in my journey. That was many (so many!) years ago.

In the Youth Development Middle Years training, we examine current research and strive to understand the experience of 10-13 year-olds today. We discuss common developmental pathways, and how out-of-school time (OST) professionals can best meet youth needs. We weave in some of our own stories and the struggles of young people we’ve worked with to make the research real and deepen our understanding and insight. And we find ways to use our superpowers.

Before I run a Youth Development training, I check in with my daughter, who just turned 14: “What matters to you most right now?” “How do you see the world?” “How are you different today than you were when you were 8 or 9?” This time, she replied – “I wish I were 9 again. It was so much better then.”

When I ask why, she explains: "It’s all too much, too much stress and pressure at school, too many social expectations, too much media, too much puberty, too much to know, to manage". She longs for simplicity.

It’s a good reminder of what we can do in the circles we form around young people, particularly at this age. Remind them of their power, and how they can be actors in their own lives. Let them know they are not alone in navigating the complexities of life. And give them space to breathe.

Photo courtesy of Russell Youth Center

I know the messages youth get from adults, and the ones they don’t, are critical to youth development. At one of our recent Agenda for Children OST training sessions, we got into a healthy debate about how to respond to youth who share their wildest hopes and dreams.

Middle school youth, still forming their prefrontal cortex and higher order thinking skills, can be open to everything. They believe they will be in the NBA, or famous musicians, or actors, or millionaires.

In our debate, some youth workers said they saw their role as being the wake-up call for unrealistic expectations. Others said that when young people came to them with fantastical ideas, they embraced their ideas and asked for more. Oh, what if you could fly, what would your wings look like? What would they be made of? Could you just lift off or would you need to get up to speed first? Where would you fly to?
Lately, my daughter said she thinks about the world as a movie all the time. She started writing scripts, taking pictures and videos, and taught herself how to edit. She found a friend with an idea for a TV show about ghosts that take over a town. Some of their ideas are outrageous, impossible to film. She wants to work on the movie instead of her homework. I can see the spark in her, her mind opening, and I want to light it without her getting burned.

At a goodbye party for a departing OST program director last spring, some young people took the mic to talk about the person who was leaving:

"She believed in me. She could see things in me that I couldn't see."

I think that is our superpower as grown-ups in middle schoolers’ lives. We can see glimpses of who they are and who they could become. Young people are in the midst of constant physical, emotional and cognitive upheaval. They’re a jumbled combination of disparate parts lightly strung together but we can see through that, we can imagine where they are going.

We can feed those fantasies, ask them to say more about them, go further, and support them to turn their ideas into reality. Or we can also be the voice of reason, helping them see the parameters around their lives so they can make real choices and understand what it actually takes to get to the NBA or the WNBA, the bright lights of Broadway, or even the high school team.

How can you use your youth worker super powers to support middle school youth? Register for the next Youth Development Middle Years training to find out.

See Upcoming Training

Author

Melina is a Quality Coach and facilitator, where she is responsible for the Front Line Communities of Practice and supporting OST programs through the Quality Improvement System. She is also an independent education consultant with roots as a counselor and teacher and a vision for creating and supporting dynamic learning environments in and outside of schools that fully engage both teacher and student.

3 Ways To Engage Youth In Storytelling

Fri, 09 Mar 2018 08:00:00 GMT

By Melinda Barbosa, Youth Development Consultant & Director

Every day, in and out of school, middle schoolers are exploring who they are in the world. As youth workers, we can help them shape their story. Every concern, problem or “drama” that middle schoolers share with us can be an entry point to helping them form their identity. How do they see themselves in their own story? Victim? Hero? Supernatural Aid/Mentor?

I have been working in the past decade to help staff and young people create spaces that promote identity exploration through blogging, social media, art and other story forms. By creating these spaces, middle schoolers can tell us who they are and who they want to be. This helps us to build engaging programs that support their dreams and provide a platform for their voice. We also know that if we can get young people to share stories about themselves, we can open them up to many new experiences.

I’ve put together some articles/resources I have found useful in training staff and educating myself on how to build storytelling into programming and staff development.
Choose your own adventure:

1	With your morning coffee or tea: These resource breaks down how to do a storytelling project with young people. I highly suggest trying it out with your staff. What is the story the adults in the building are telling young people about who you are and what you do?

2	On that lunch break you never take: I can’t get enough of the Hero’s Journey. This is still the best video I have found to explain Joseph Campbell’s brilliant theory. I’ve used this in staff trainings and with young people. Who doesn’t like a good cartoon?

3	When the red line breaks down or after a Netflix binge when you need to recover your brain power: This one I read every three months just to remind me of the power of storyelling. It’s wordy, long, and theoretical. Perfect, if you ask me.

*	And another one for fun: I haven’t tried this out yet, but I signed up for the online seminar on February 5th. Join me! Maybe we can all do it together somewhere!

Melinda running a storytelling workshop with youth workers at Agenda for Children Out-of-School Time Symposium in November 2017.

Author

Melinda Barbosa is a trainer, facilitator and youth worker who believes in a program culture that encourages youth-owned ideas and projects supported by staff members trained to nurture growth and who encourage youth to imagine inconceivable possibilities for themselves. Melinda regularly presents her work in positive youth development, behavior management strategies and professional development of staff at local and national conferences.

Why learn about youth development?

Fri, 02 Mar 2018 08:00:00 GMT

By Jess Leach, teacher at Agassiz Baldwin Community and Community Coordinator Associate at Agenda for Children

My imaginary child "Jess Junior" and all the ways we thought she had changed and would change the in the future

And it’s important to look closely - understanding youth development (a term for how children change and grow) is vital to our work with young people. Admittedly, I wasn’t fully aware of this importance until I attended the Youth Development training for K-5 facilitated by coach and trainer David Jenkins. After discussing all the different areas of youth development, I realized that all youth workers, regardless of our specific job title, play such a significant role in how the young people in our programs grow up. We are not only witnesses to these great changes but factors in them as well.

"We are not only witnesses to these great changes but factors in them as well."

Understanding the impact we have on how youth develop helps us see a game of kickball as more than just running around and a conversation about a child’s favorite book as more than small talk. These are moments that build young people’s motor skills and inform their sense of identity. They are also moments where we can shape and influence young people to help them succeed.

In the Youth Development training, we were given an opportunity to apply this thinking to how we plan activities with children and young people in our program. We were asked to explore our activity planning using the following youth-development oriented questions:

Does the activity support children and young people in one or more of the following categories of development: physical, cognitive, moral, self-concept or emotional traits?
Is the activity accessible or engaging to children and young people in varying stages of development in those aspects? Can you adjust your plan to accommodate for those discrepancies?
Are you challenging children and young people to take their skills to the next level?

Keeping these questions in the back of my mind helps me think more deeply about what I offer children and young people and how I can help them succeed. It also helps me challenge biases about certain age groups or even certain children - they are not static or unchangeable. Even if the changes are hard to notice at first, each moment we share with youth is an opportunity to encourage positive growth.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to invigorate your program with youth development-informed planning, please register for our upcoming training on Youth Development for K-5 and Middle Years.

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