OST Symposium

About the OST Symposium

AFCOST hosts the annual Cambridge OST Symposium which brings together all the members of our OST community, along with community partners, to network, dialogue on our collective practices, look forward into the future about the field of OST, and learn together.

Symposium is designed using a conference-style format, with large and small group events, workshops, and networking opportunities, that creates different spaces where our members have the opportunity to grow professionally and engage in building our OST community.

Symposium enables AFCOST to continue to advance its mission commitment “to convene, support and share innovations with the youth-serving community of Cambridge". It’s an annual event filled with fun and exploration so don’t miss it!

Click here to return to the OST Learning Institute.

Thank you for a wonderful OST Symposium!
Please complete the 2025 OST Symposium Survey. Your reflections shape what we build next, and your feedback helps us fine-tune the experience for both participants and presenters.
 
If you didn’t get a chance to share feedback with workshop facilitators, you can still do so using the 2025 OST Symposium Activity Feedback Form - It’s a quick and easy way to show your support!

2025 OST Symposium Survey

2025 OST Symposium Activity Feedback Form

​Symposium History

In 2013, the Agenda for Children created the OST Symposium for the Cambridge out-of-school time community. The Symposium was designed as an opportunity for members of the community to present their passions, interests and best practices to each other in a conference-style format, with large group events, break-out sessions, and networking opportunities. The first Symposium included upwards of twenty-five workshops that engaged over 200 community participants. All presenters were members of the Cambridge OST community, including front line staff, program directors, executives, and Agenda for Children Coaches.

Each year, the Cambridge OST Symposium celebrates our collective OST efforts, knowledge and displays of excellence in serving Cambridge youth and their families. In the spirit of equity, access, and inclusion, Symposium is open to everyone with an interest in participating, including our partners. 

2025 OST Symposium

2025 OST Symposium Survey

2025 OST Symposium Activity Feedback

Check out the Workshop Rewind for a sample of workshops that have been offered by your peers.

---

2024 OST Symposium

Math Literacy is a Civil Right
Cambridge STEAM Initiative Interactive OST Symposium Exhibit

OST is a critical and powerful space where young people develop an understanding of their identity. We have the ability to shift the culture around who can “do” math to a culture where everyone feels confident in math and has the power to understand, engage with and create change in the world. 
Throughout the week, we invite you to explore our individual and collective math identity through a series of interactive installations. 

​
​Math is power.
Math is everywhere. 
The news we see, the impact of our votes, the candidates who win elections, the education we have access to, the jobs we get, the people we date.
Underneath all of this is a hidden layer of math that few of us see or understand.
What would be possible if we all understood how math shapes our society?

---

---

2023 OST Symposium

---

2022 OST Symposium

Thank you again for joining us for the 9th OST Symposium:  Healing, Passion and Purpose.
​
We hope that the 2022 OST Symposium inspired you and helped you to connect with other OST providers, new ideas, content, knowledge.  ​ 

​Thank you to our Zoom hosts, facilitators, moderators, panelists and speakers for creating space for sharing, learning, healing, and collective care. 

​March 28th, 10:00AM Reunions of  Inaugural Liberation of Leadership Cohort and Social Emotional Learning Cohorts 
March 29th,  Workshops for OST Providers.
March 30th, OST Symposium Panel - The Power of Healing: Beginning our Journey Moderated by Shawn Proctor followed by our 2022 OST Symposium Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Shawn Ginwright, CEO & Founder, Flourish Agenda 

---

Watch the videos

OST Symposium Panel - The Power of Healing: Beginning our Journey Moderated by Shawn Proctor followed by our 2022 OST Symposium Keynote Speaker

Keynote Speaker: 
​Dr. Shawn Ginwright, CEO & Founder, Flourish Agenda ​

---

2021 OST Symposium 

OST Symposium 2021 Panel, Moderated by Tyrell Dortch: 
Uplifting Black & Brown Leaders, Youth & Families

OST Program Leaders: ashley herring of blackyard, Michael & Donna Dawson of Innovators for Purpose, Solomon Montagno of CitySprouts, and Queen-Cheyenne Wade of Cambridge Heart Program share their learnings and practices and insights.   

• How can we transform how we define youth and community development, prioritizing racial equity in who leads the way?
• How can we center Black and brown youth and families’ interests, needs and hopes as core to our practice? 

Watch the video here.

---

OST Symposium 2021 Keynote Speaker:  Professor Ceasar McDowell shares his insights about how Out-of-School Time Programs can "struggle together, with the traditions that bind us, and the interests that separate us" and "realize a future that is an equitable improvement on the past." 

If we intentionally design with and for the people on the margins,  OST Programs can be the place where BIPOC caregivers, parents, and youth have voice and agency and hope. 

Watch the video and view the presentation slides.  

---

---

OST Symposium 2019 

​AFCOST Youth Connectors, Damilola Oluwole and Medjine Lucien, and AFCOST Coach and Trainer, Melinda Barbosa pulled together these slides, reflections, and photos of the Symposium to inspire staff who work to support youth development in out of school time programs. 

​What inspires you to work with young people? 

​Click here to return to the OST Learning Institute.