Hi Cambridge OST Providers, We are reaching out to share some messages, information and resources affiliated with the recent and tragic loss of an 8th grade CPS student. Please be aware that all CSUS students as well as others may be aware and impacted by what has happened, now and into the future. We hope that our programs can serve as the sources of support, love and healing that we always strive for -- especially during this difficult time. The following is being reposted from communications that have gone out from Cambridge Public Schools, and includes information about an upcoming webinar happening on the evening of 10/23/24, as well as additional resources. This message is primarily for programs serving upper school students, but also for those with elementary and/or high school students who might have older or younger siblings and/or heard about what happened. Dear CPS Community: The last few days have been extremely difficult for our school district. On Friday the Cambridge Street Upper School suffered an unimaginable loss when we learned of the unexpected passing of an 8th grade student. Our team has been in contact with the student’s family as well as officials from the Cambridge Health Alliance to ensure coordinated supports are in place to assist CSUS as well as the extended CPS community during this painful period of time. Our thoughts and prayers are and will continue to be with the student’s family and friends. We know that a loss like this may evoke various emotions, concerns, and questions among our students. Please note that our schools are staffed with counselors, psychologists, and other caring adults who are fully committed to the well-being of all students. In lieu of our normal collection of newsletter resources, please see below for details related to a virtual information session that will be convened on Wednesday evening focusing on grief, loss and supporting children during times of crisis. This program has been recommended by experts in the field of grief counseling and crisis management. We are providing this resource to the community at-large because we know the impact of a tragedy like this can be both widespread and dangerously silent. CPS will continue to work to identify any resources we can leverage on behalf of our school communities and make them available to all who need support. To the staff, students and families of the Cambridge Street Upper School, I want to offer both my deepest sympathy for the grief you are experiencing and gratitude for the steadfast grace you have demonstrated in recent days. The professionalism and dedication being exhibited by the teachers and staff at CSUS in support of their students is inspiring, and on behalf of the community I extend my most heartfelt thanks. There will be additional resources deployed to CSUS and elsewhere in the days ahead. If your child is in need of mental health support of any kind, please contact your school’s main office or the district’s crisis coordinator, Kim Huffer, at [email protected]. Thank you. Sincerely, David Murphy Interim Superintendent Webinar Information & Additional ResourcesVirtual Webinar: How to Discuss Suicide and Support Youth Through Loss
Riverside Trauma Center will host a virtual webinar in partnership with school administrators focusing on how caregivers can support youth in navigating conversations about suicide as well as how support youth through feelings of grief. When: This Wednesday, October 23 | 7 - 8:15PM Where: Virtually on Zoom Access the webinar here. Attendees will learn:
Finally, I am also re-sharing some information that may be helpful to you in discussing suicide with your child:
Note that children who are already vulnerable may be at greater risk due to exposure to the suicide of a peer. If you or your child needs help right away, call 911 or take your child to the nearest crisis center or emergency department. Additional options for support include:
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During this month’s Network Meeting, we focused on the meaning of quality staff and its importance for our programs and the communities we serve. Breaking out into four groups, we asked each group what key attributes they believe define a high-quality youth worker. The groups also had the chance to discuss:
Based on these colorful conversations, network members had the opportunity to create a visual representation of their quality team members. From stethoscopes to duckfeet, the drawings represented each group's unique vision of a quality team member. Check out the drawings below! Finally, we reviewed a few antiracism scenarios and discussed the key attributes that would help our quality team members respond effectively and appropriately to the situation. Community AnnouncementsConnor Epsteinkraus - The Cambridge Public Health Department and Family Policy Council are forming a Youth Wellness Working Group to develop policy and program recommendations and a plan to ensure every young person in our community has the skills, supports, and opportunities they need to thrive. All the details are in this proposal and slideshow. They are hoping to get a diverse group of people with multiple perspectives to join us. If you or anyone you know might be interested, fill out this Google form: https://forms.gle/dXgZuDsqrmiCyGTy9 Puja Kranz-Howe - The YWCA’s GOLD and GEY programs for 12-18 year olds are starting at the end of October at CRLS. The programs run once a week until May. Drop-ins are okay! See the flyers for more information. Participants can receive a $100 stipend or community service hours. Jordan Harvey - Tutoring Plus has put together a monthly math digest for grades 4-8 to illustrate what’s happening in math classrooms. Contact Jordan for more information: [email protected] Carol Urbano - Welcome Carol! Carol is new to the Network having recently been hired at the MIT Museum as the Teen Programs Coordinator. Feel free to reach out to Carol: [email protected]
Thank you all for attending the ESON and MSN September Kick Off Meeting! Your presence and active participation made the event a great success. We truly appreciate the time and energy you dedicated to engaging with one another, sharing your insights, and contributing to the discussions. It’s your commitment to this network that helps us create meaningful connections and foster impactful change within our communities. We started with an AFCOST Ways of Being BINGO activity, where folks introduced themselves to each other and shared a story related to the Ways of Being on the bingo card. That was followed by the “Stand up, Sit down” activity led by Greg and Tyrique that helped attendees get to know each other through personal stories. Khari then discussed the broader purposes and objectives of the Networks, its programs, shared information and updates about the OST Expansion Study, and recognized programs supporting this initiative. In small groups, attendees created skits addressing community issues, such as school phone policies, changes in school schedules, and supporting new families and mental health needs. The meeting wrapped up with a readout of impact statements in response to the following prompt: What impact does your work have on your young people? After announcements were shared, and before leaving, attendees were invited to complete a feedback form which included questions about attendees' expectations and suggestions for future meetings (Please complete the feedback form if you didn't have a chance at the meeting!) We hope this meeting fostered engagement and reflection and set a collaborative tone for the upcoming year! We look forward to seeing you all again on Wednesday, 10/2/24, 10am-12pm, location (to be announced!) See full schedule here: MSN/ESON Meeting Schedule 24-25. See below for community announcements, a schedule of upcoming meetings, as well as some resources for you, youth, and families. -Greg, Tyrique, Zeena, and Khari Community AnnouncementsDeeDee Cetoute - Cambridge Camping: Cambridge Camping's Saturday Camp is starting Saturday, Sept. 21st. Camp is for ages 6-13 and there are spots open! Contact DeeDee for more info: [email protected] Matt Meyersohn - Cambridge Basketball Lab: Basketball Lab is happening at PAUS this school year. Open to middle and high school students. It's 4x per week and starts Tuesday, Sept. 24th. No cost! Contact Matt for more info: [email protected] Sarah Lincoln - Cambridge Public Health Department: CPHD is looking for middle and high schoolers to develop campaigns around substance abuse. This is a paid, remote position for about 3-4 hrs per week. Reach out to Sarah for more info: [email protected] Skye Edwards - The Robo Hub: The Robo Hub is offering after school programming for K-8th graders. Parents are welcome to attend programming, as well! Financial aid is available for students. The Robo Hub can also offer workshops at program sites or can host students on a field trip. Reach out to Skye for more info: [email protected] Tagesech Wabeto - Commission on Immigrant Rights & Citizenship: Danehy Park Family Day is happening on Saturday, Sept. 21st, 11am-3pm. Upcoming Opportunities & Resources For YouAFCOST is seeking a new Middle School Network Coordinator! The MSN Coordinator Position - posted by the Cambridge Public Schools as an "Out-of-School Time Partnerships Assistant Manager" - coordinates, convenes and builds a network of Cambridge out-of-school time providers, schools, community partners and others who work together to provide and ensure equitable access to quality learning experiences beyond the school day and school year for 6th-8th grade children and youth living throughout our city. Check out this job posting for many more details. Looking to attend Back-to-School Events? Check out this schedule for all Cambridge Public Schools Back-to-School Events. "e" inc.: Introducing STEAM to Your After School Program Looking to bring STEAM into your after school program? “e” inc. can come to your after school site once-a-week to lead students through science and action lessons that help students better understand our planet and work to protect it. After school science is parsed into three trimesters. Sites can choose whether to offer the program, as one science program to 3 sets of students across the year or three different programs to three distinct age groups. Typically, after school is every day and the “e” inc. science program occurs once-a-week. There are many topics sites can choose, from Backyard Habitats to Our Changing Climate, with many more also available. This program will be paid for by the City of Cambridge as long as your program resides in Cambridge! Interested? Contact Greg Green at [email protected] or Tyrique Kittrell at [email protected] to learn more. Bridge Scholars is Looking For Program Sites Bridge Scholars is a tutoring program, started and run by CRLS scholars, that gives high school students the opportunity to tutor and play with young kids around Cambridge! Bridge Scholars is looking for program sites to send CRLS students to:
Upcoming Opportunities & Resources for Youth and FamiliesThe Back to School Basketball Tournament for middle schoolers is happening on Sunday, Sept. 15th, 10am-2pm at Donnelly Field.
Are you a parent or caregiver of an elementary school-aged child? Learn how to support positive youth development and explore Cambridge resources at the Building the Foundation for Youth Wellbeing event on Monday, Sept. 30th, 6:30-8pm at the King Open School. Mass Audubon's Nature in the City Festival is happening on Saturday, Sept. 21st, 12-5pm at 668 Memorial Drive. On a sunny June afternoon, the ESON, MSN, and RAY communities gathered at the Moore Youth Center to celebrate the end of the school year. Amidst the lively music, laughter, and the delicious BBQ (thanks, Tyrique!), there was a strong sense of joy and camaraderie among the out-of-school time community. During our second annual Network Love and Impact Awards, several OST colleagues were recognized for their dedication to the youth in their programs and for supporting each other. Awardees included: Latifah James, Sarah Lincoln, George Hinds, Alex Frank, Raul Zaorski, Gavilán Rivas-Chavez, Larry Thompson, Katie Quizhpe, Jack O’Hearn, Yvonne Gittens, and Bo Lembo. Check out the awards ceremony here! We also honored Annie Leavitt, MSN Coordinator, for her work in advocating for children and families and facilitating partnerships between systems, schools, and programs. To honor her contributions, we introduced the inaugural Annie Leavitt School-Out-of-School Time Partnership Award to recognize members of the OST community who embody Annie's commitment. The community had the opportunity to share their feedback on what they would like to see more of in upcoming ESON and MSN meetings, which we plan on incorporating in the new school year. If you haven’t shared your feedback yet, you can still do so by filling out a brief questionnaire here. From ESON, MSN, and RAY, we are grateful to be a part of this community and look forward to the upcoming summer programs! Have a great summer! Our network meeting in March 2024, focused on our middle schoolers (6th-8th graders) - particularly the older rising 7th and 8th graders that are often hardest to recruit and maintain in summer programs, yet are also critically important to have in programming. Our big question for the meeting was: What does it take to engage middle schoolers in the summer? Because only so much can be covered in any 90 minute meeting, we focused on two elements: what trends we are seeing among the 6-8th grade post-COVID (in schools and programs), and what we are naming “the culture challenge”: how do you create a pathway so that 5th graders want to stay enrolled and eventually become the 8th graders in your program? Check out the slide deck from the meeting here: What Does It Take to Engage Middle Schoolers in Summer? We did a number of ‘chat waterfalls’ during this meeting, where we asked the 30+ participants a question, had them type their answer in the chat but not press send until everyone did it together - thus creating a ‘waterfall’ of responses all at the same time. It was a great way to see all the input and perspectives and expertise from across the network. The first of those was just about what trends we are seeing in middle schoolers: What are we seeing? (Chat waterfall responses)
Then, we asked folks to share their own questions about the situation: What questions do we have about what is going on? (Chat waterfall responses)
These responses set the table for a really rich discussion about what we’d like to see in middle school programming. We heard from Melinda Rosado, who has deep history with the Middle School Network and our schools - she was a former youth worker and program director at Gately Youth Center, worked in student support at Putnam Ave Upper School and is currently working across all four Upper Schools as a Safety Specialist for the Safety Dept of Cambridge Public Schools. As someone who spends time in each of the school buildings, and someone who knows both the OST and the school perspective well, she had a lot to say on this topic (which is why we brought her here - her expertise and advice about young people has always been spot on). Some of Melinda’s insights on middle schoolers right now:
We spent the rest of the meeting talking about where we would like to be with our middle school programs - thinking and sharing “what it looks like when it works” - and we got some great examples from folks in the meeting. Some highlights: What does it look like when it works?:
As always, here were the community announcements:
Emily Meyer (CPL): The Cambridge Public Library has a few fun and exciting events coming up! On March 14th, there is a Nintendo Switch program for ages 7-9. On March 28th, there will be a shadow puppet story telling event. For the April 8th solar eclipse, the library is giving away free glasses to watch the eclipse and is hosting eclipse-related activities. To view a list of upcoming events and programs, click here. Emily Shield (Women’s Commission): Hosting Consent Camp this summer! During this summer program campers will learn about consent education and activism. Campers will be mentored by high school peer leaders. By the end of camp, they will receive a certificate in Peer Education. To register, 7th-9th graders: click here, 4th-6th graders: click here. 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?
Together we can make sure that young people connect to high quality summer program experiences! At our February Network Meeting, we focused on equity and access in out-of-school (OST) opportunities in Cambridge. Our main goal, as always, is to ensure that all young people and families have fair access to these opportunities. We wanted to spend time being explicit with our networks in talking about WHAT that looks like, HOW we do it (and you do it, within your contexts) and WHO we are talking about when we reference ‘priority families’ in Cambridge. During the meeting, we discussed the changing demographics of Cambridge, specifically income inequality over the past four decades, and shared snapshots from some recent reports (like the Cambridge Community Foundations’ "Equity & Innovation Cities: The Case of Cambridge" report) that paint a picture of the city that is surprising even to folks who’ve been in Cambridge a long time. In the connection groups, participants had meaningful conversations about what this income inequality and changing demographics looks like in their K-5 and 6-8 programs. This helped us understand how this issue affects our community and our own spheres of influence. We also heard stories from families and students, and shared demographic data and examples from our summer follow-up initiative, where we work with schools and community members to assemble a list of priority young people and work individually with them to get them registered for summer programs. These highlighted the HOW: how we try to ensure equal access (and overcome the barriers involved) to high-quality out-of-school opportunities for everyone, from our team’s vantage point in the schools and across community programs. Weren’t able to make the meeting? Check out the rest of the slides here! Please get in touch with us if you have questions and want to talk more - as always, we want and need everyone across our networks to be part of the effort to challenge inequity, and all have roles and actions (large and small) that can be part of the solution. Feel free to use the data shared here (the demographic data and the Cambridge OST data) with sources cited (see slides) as we continue the long term work of overcoming barriers that affect the future of young people. Community AnnouncementsShilpa (Cambridge Camping): Summer camp registration for Adventure Day Camp and Daybreak Day Camp is now open. There is also a low cost cooking program available! Cambridge Camping offers payment plans. To learn more visit their website. Puja (Cambridge YWCA): There are two YWCA summer programs happening this year: CampOUT at The Farm School: August 19th-23rd Overnight/Sleepaway Camp The Farm School is an educational farm that hosts weekly programs for youth from many different schools nationwide. Learn more about The Farm School at farmschool.org. The CampOUT week is a sleepaway camp for trans, non-binary, and queer teens who are 9-14 years old. (Teens 15-19 are welcome to apply to be counselors-in-training!) And young people from queer families. For questions, please email Emmy at [email protected]. Learn more and register online. Consent Camp Consent Camp is a NO-COST summer program for Cambridge students entering grades 7th-9th and 4th-6th. Camp participants will learn about consent education and activism. Campers will be mentored by trained high school peer leaders and supervised by expert adult educators. Participants will receive a Peer Education certificate by the end of camp. Learn more and register here for 7th-9th and here for 4th-6th. Shameka (New School of Music): New School of Music is hosting a Chorus Open House on February 10th. It’s free and open to the public! Emily Meyer (Cambridge Public Library): Cambridge Public Library is hosting February Vacation Week programs. Check their calendar here to see what’s available! Nina (Office of Workforce Development): MSYEP Worksite applications are now available! MSYEP offers Cambridge teens the opportunity to work with non-profits or government agencies for 6 weeks during the summer. Teens work 20 hours per week from July 1-August 9. There are two ways of providing opportunities for youth to work with your organization: Traditional Worksites: MSYEP provides all youth wages and an MSYEP Liaison who will monitor youths’ experience and provide support to the teens and to you. If you would like to host one or more young people at your workplace as a traditional worksite, please complete only the MSYEP Worksite Application. Summer Work and Learning Sites: Expand the scope of MSYEP by including an educational enrichment component. SWL programs are an opportunity for you to design and manage an educational, work-based learning project specific to your organization’s mission and needs. Funds are available to cover personnel costs related to the program and supplies. As with traditional worksites, MSYEP pays the wages for all teens assigned and provides the support of an MSYEP Liaison. If you’d like to apply as an SWL site, please complete the MSYEP Worksite Application AND the RFP Proposal Form. Both forms are due on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Questions? Contact George Hinds, 617-349-6268 or [email protected] Thank you to the many of you who joined our School Partnerships Gathering! We had over 100 people in the room and the energy was palpable. Thank you again to the Foundry for hosting (please reach out to them about booking space – they have so many amazing resources available!) After our meeting, we had a chance to connect with folks and asked them, “What's something you learned today?" Here are some of the responses we received:
To facilitate ongoing learning and networking, we've created a directory of all the meeting attendees, which you can view here. Below are announcements - and some amazing language related resources from Crystal Rosa (thank you!) Also, be sure to check out the upcoming 2024 ESON/MSN Network and 2024 RAY meeting dates/topics! With gratitude for all that you each do, Nadia & Annie Breakout Group Notes & ParticipantsMany of you asked if we could specifically share the notes from each of our breakout groups with names and emails - here they are! We encourage you all to reach out to each other to continue these conversations - or start new ones! We will also be reviewing notes to see what we can continue to work on in our networks and across organizations. Check out the Breakout Group Notes & Participants below: Community AnnouncementsSpace Available at The Foundry (Applications Due 12/29/23) Would your program like to use The Foundry's amazing facilities to offer weekly classes for young people? Weekly programs are selected on a quarterly basis for up to 12 weeks of programming per season. For this season, applications open on November 10. Applications are due on Friday, December 29. The spring season runs between March and May. Any programs that meet their community guidelines and make positive use of the space are welcome at The Foundry! For more information about how they will select which programs are accepted each season, you can review their Program Rubric. This application should take around 10-20 minutes to fill out and you can view the full application here. Questions about the application or this process can be directed to [email protected]. To see the rooms available at The Foundry, visit their website. To see the hourly cost of each room, see their sliding scale.
Language Resources From the Language Barriers breakout group a few things emerged. Here are resources on those needs: The need for teachers to use plain language in their communications to families:
Although an organization may have bilingual staff available, their skill is not at a level for helping native speakers adequately. Interpretation services should be available to bilingual staff too:
Please inform the event participants that they can always Schedule a Meeting or Submit a Request for Assistance to discuss how to get their work translated or have interpretation at a community meeting. Tell all 8th-12th Graders: Come to the MIT Museum Teen Science Cafe! Designed by teens for teens, Teen Science Cafes bring together scientists and students, grades 8-12 to explore new research and discuss what inspires and influences people to pursue careers in STEM. Join local researchers and other teens for a night exploring the field of psychology. Hear from experts on behavioral psychology and language, and engage in fun and interactive learning centered on interpersonal relationships and brain games. Upcoming Event: Psych Night, Sat, Dec 16th, 6-8 pm Registration Link. Questions? Contact Melisa Rojas, [email protected]
ESON Coordinator Position is Posted! The Agenda for Children OST is looking to hire a new Elementary School-Out-of-School Time Network (ESON) Coordinator (Shawn Proctor’s former position)! ESON is a coordinated and committed coalition of Cambridge out-of-school time providers, schools, families, and community partners who work together to provide equitable access to quality learning experiences beyond the school day and school year for JK-5 children. Interested? Click here to apply or share the link with someone who would be a great fit! If you have questions, please feel free to contact Khari Milner, [email protected] CRLS Youth Equity Summit CRLS Youth Equity Summit is on January 24th from 12:30 - 3:00-ish! Table at the Actionable Advocacy Fair with opportunities for teens to get involved in your programs. Reach out to Sam Musher to get involved: [email protected] Free Drop-In Tutoring at The Library The Teen Room at the Cambridge Public Library Main Branch has free Drop-In Tutoring for ages 12 – 18 on Mondays & Wednesdays 5:00 – 6:00pm Questions? Contact Paul Trunnell: [email protected]
Friday Night Hype & Rollin’ N Summer Resources Friday Night Hype is hosting a Winter Dance! Students from around the district will come together for a winter celebration at the Friday Night Hype Winter Dance. All middle school students are welcome! Friday, Dec. 15th, 2023 at the Community Art Center Gym, 119 Windsor St., Cambridge Grades 6 & 7: Dance is from 7:00 - 8:30 PM Grades 8 & 9: Dance is from 8:30 - 10:00 PM There is no cost (permission slip is required). Rollin' N Summer Resources is happening on March 2nd! RSVP and save the date! Questions? Contact Debbie Bonilla, [email protected] CPS District / School Climate Survey for CPS Families
Please encourage CPS parents and caregivers to use this link to take the survey. (Deadline 12/22/23). Questions? Contact: Ray Porch: [email protected], Khari Milner: [email protected] We had our November meeting on zoom - the first in a while! - and we remembered how convenient the format can be for bringing in folks who can’t spend the time away from their programs. As much as we love the in-person settings, we are hoping the mix of the two allows all of you the best chance to be part of the MSN and ESON networks. Our topic this month was Family Engagement (see slide deck here!), particularly these questions:
We kicked off the conversation with a poll to ask folks where they spend their energy and time when it comes to family engagement: We also shared some flashbacks to what we talked about last year at this time (particularly the tensions that come up when building new connections with middle schoolers) - see the slide deck for those flashbacks (and other info shared in the meeting). Our connection groups gave folks a quick time to talk about specific topics as we started off the meeting: one group talked about how to discuss world events with kids and families, another talked everything Halloween (favorite/least favorite/best costume/program celebrations) and a third group was looking for an update on the CPS Excel strategic tutoring initiative, which we all heard during announcements. Take a look at the other community announcements below:
Breakout Groups: In one group, focused on problem-solving specific situations in K-5 programs, the conversation centered on communicating with immigrant families. Tagasech Wabeto, who works for the Commission on Immigrant Rights and Citizenship, said many people don't check their email regularly because they forget their credentials or struggle with the login process. To improve communication, she suggests text messages. Translated messages can be helpful but if translation is not available, sending a text in English is better than an email. Another tip is to send messages in a child's backpack. Using Google Voice, which combines text and email features, makes it easier to access missed calls and messages in one place. For group messaging that doesn't require a reply, Remind is a good option. Finally, the C.E.T and C.D.D outreach workers can assist with distributing flyers and translations. In another group (for 6-8th grade programs), we shared our own stories of how we learned to engage with families early in our own careers - and although some people had some formal ‘training’ the overall sense was that most of us learned by trial and error and by watching others and their interactions with families. We talked about how to translate that into building capacity for younger staff - creating opportunities for people to listen in on phone calls, intentionally model types of interactions or push newer staff to have the interactions rather than defer to directors. One person talked about the clarity and energy that came from having an outside consultant/coach come in and help the program staff create a Family Engagement plan, complete with goals, strategy, and events for the year - another key way to get everyone on board and ready to engage families as partners. As part of our closing, we asked folks “What’s one thing you are leaving here wanting to try/do? Or what conversation would you want to have with the Family Liaisons/school staff at the Dec 6th gathering?” Here are some responses:
Our next meeting on Dec 6th is a joint meeting (in person at the Foundry) including not just programs in MSN, and ESON, but also the CPS Family Liaisons, Upper School Guidance Counselors, and OST Program folks serving the high school community (in Reaching All Youth). Remember to RSVP for this meeting (which isn’t usually required for our other meetings) - because we want to give people tools for networking and talking about shared young people, we need to know who will be there! Click here to RSVP! Thanks for joining us on a sunny October morning at Danehy Park - we were glad for the sunshine, especially since we postponed the ESON & MSN Kickoff Event from the original soggy Sept. date. But more importantly, we were glad to see your faces, feel your energy, and look forward into the 2023-24 school year as a network of programs and partners serving young people in Cambridge. We can't wait to see the amazing things we will achieve together over the coming months. Here is a link to our proposed meeting schedule for this school year MSN and ESON Meetings: 23-24 SY. We had a great time at the meeting, starting off with connection groups that allowed folks to choose their own adventure. The options included untangle the Human Knot and talk about building bridges with school folks, play Evolution and debrief summer programs, or survey the Cambridge Ecosystem Map (provided by Family Policy Council & Find It Cambridge) to find all the resources that we didn’t know existed, or orient ourselves to a new community. Folks old and new shared a wide span of community announcements. Here is a list of some community announcements if you missed the meeting. We spent the rest of the meeting cycling through four breakout rotations, sitting in the shade in small groups to talk about (and hear your ideas) for the different AFCOST spaces this year. The four rotations included:
As we embark on this new journey, we eagerly anticipate all the opportunities for learning, growth, and collaboration that lie ahead. We firmly believe that, with your continued involvement, we can make this school year a remarkable and fulfilling experience for all.
Feel free to reach out to us with your ideas, suggestions, or questions – your active engagement is what will make this year exceptional! |
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