Cambridge Out-of-School Time Coalition
A coalition of out-of-school time programs working to improve outcomes for Cambridge children and youth.
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At our most recent OST Coalition meeting, the Cambridge Agenda for Children OST leaned into the spirit of celebrating Black History Month by recognizing the importance of Adinkra symbols to our collective history, culture and community.
We particularly spotlighted the Adinkra Symbol, Sankofa, and its significance to our community during the prolonged phase of transition that we’ve been going through since COVID-19 has disrupted so many elements of our OST landscape, programs, staffing and overall community. We also did some Freedom Dreaming as a Coalition and pondered... If anything were possible, how might we use the Adinkra symbol of Sankofa to inform the strategies, sustainability and success of the Cambridge OST Coalition going forward and into the future? |
Please feel free to review the slide deck and join us in this Freedom Dream and continue to use past lessons, learnings, pitfalls and success to inform: decisions to be made, the development of strategies and the overall road ahead. Together we can go further to continue centering and providing more equitable access to quality OST programs and opportunities for the young people and families of Cambridge.
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If you were not able to join us, here is a link to the slide deck, which includes notes from data focused table talks and links to remarks shared by Ellen Semonoff (audio, text) and Dr. Barbara Mullen (audio, text).
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We were so excited to convene the September 2022 OST Coalition at Lesley University. OST leaders had an opportunity to reconnect and make meaning of shared data sets.
We had an opportunity to engage with Ellen Semonoff, Assistant City Manager who shared updates about attending to equity in the Department of Human Services Programs. Dr. Mullen, Assistant Superintendent of the Office of Student Support shared her experiences with OST and her desire to connect and develop complementary and interdependent relationships with the Cambridge OST Program to make sure that our children are seen and they find their voices as we attend to their social and emotional and academic learning. |
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At our February Meeting of the Cambridge OST Coalition, we welcomed new members of our community, shared challenges and strategies related to staff recruitment and retention, and discussed a recent blog post published by the National Afterschool Association which focused on how we B.U.I.LD. our respective teams.
Khari Milner moderated an inspiring panel of Black OST Leaders who shared their perspectives, wisdom and approach to leading for equity and healing. You can access the video here. We introduced Chaylin Johnson, the newly hired OST Learning Institute Coordinator for the Agenda for Children OST and reminded our leaders about the upcoming opportunity to engage at the OST Symposium and hear from our Keynote Speaker, Shawn Ginwright of the Flourish Agenda. We referenced a recent brief about the national OST workforce shortage published by the Afterschool Alliance. |
We reviewed information about the Cambridge OST Workforce (June 2020) and 5 year trends (2016-2021) in participation in the AFCOST Professional Development System. We discussed our collective leadership role in improving professional development opportunities for our sector.
You can see the slides here and listen to our AFCOST Black History Playlist. Finally, Michelle Farnum spoke briefly about an upcoming Cambridge OST Capacity Study, which we will be undertaking as a community. Stay tuned for more information prior to and at our next OST Coalition meeting in June. |
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At our September 2021 Cambridge OST Coalition Meeting, Khari also shared his reflections and acknowledged the many significant contributions of Dr. Bob Moses, activist, educator, beloved husband, father, mentor, founder of the Algebra Project, who recently joined the ancestors.
We encourage you to read his last OpEd "Returning to ‘Normal’ in Education is Not Good Enough" and learn more as we commit to continuing his work dismantling the caste system and ensuring that our children have access to equitable education and full constitutional rights. |
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We also had an opportunity to re-connect with colleagues and share reflections and learnings from the past year. We had an opportunity to engage in some Freedom Dreaming about the future of OST in Cambridge and to meet and hear from Dr. Victoria Greer, our interim Superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools.
We shared the Building Forward Together Conversation Guide published by the Forum for Youth Investment, and other partners. Here is a link to the slide deck for the meeting. |
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Signed CPS Partner MOUs should be returned to Khari at kmilner@cpsd.us by 9/8/21.
If you have any questions or concerns please email or call Khari (617-349-6553(o), 617-874-6787 (c) |
If you missed it, please share this recording of a training hosted by the Cambridge Public Schools to share key safety procedures in the out-of-school hours.
Slide deck from 8.31.21 Training session 8.31.21 COVID Procedure Training - CPS Partners Q&A SY 21-22 CPS Partner MOU This MOU should be completed and signed by organizations with programs and/or programming that: a) Take place in a CPS building. b) Receive CPS students who ride CPS buses to your programs after school. |
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In March, leaders of the Cambridge OST Community convened to actively engage other OST leaders in small group discussions. Leaders shared what we've learned this year; heard about the ways we supported and emphasized family engagement; supported equity across OST and our community, explored reflections, and learnings from national OST research. Here is the link to the slide deck.
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In the recording above, Debbie Bonilla, Puerto Rican mom, grandmother, and CPSD Family Engagement Specialist, shares her experience engaging families in ways that are anti-racist and inclusive.
Shawn Proctor, Elementary School OST Network Coordinator, tells us about the parent advisory group he has convened to ensure that high quality OST programs are accessible to our Elementary School children. |
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On August 26th, OST Programs met with Dr. Salim to share data about Fall 2020 Planning and ask some pressing questions. For programs who wish to access the CPS Community Partners Portal, please get in touch with Khari Milner at kmilner@cpsd.us to learn about the process and get started.
Use this link to view a letter outlining next steps and how to submit a request for a portal account for your organization. 
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This portal, the result of hours of partnership talks, technology fixes and beta tests with CPS district folks, is now available for use. The short version of this is that the portal will:
Click here for a link to the CPS Community Portal User Guide |
Save the Date for our next OST Coalition meeting on
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On July 30, 2020, approximately 60 members of the Cambridge OST Community met with Cambridge Public Schools leaders to share what we are learning about summer programs and to learn more about the status of planning for re-opening schools. Here is a link to the presentation slides.
The presentation included a subset of slides from a June 2020 report of OST Organization Program Profile Data from a survey representing nearly 50 OST Programs. Here is the link to the more complete set of slides. Check back here as we will be posting questions and answers from the break out groups. More to come. |
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Thank you to those OST Providers who joined the meeting with CPSD Administrators on April 30th. As requested, here are the detailed summary notes and links to presentation slides and next steps, click here. For those who were not able to attend, the Zoom Meeting was recorded and we have posted the video here.
During this time of uncertainty, we are excited to leverage our relationships and partner strategically to coordinate and collaborate to better serve our children, youth, and families. |
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Check out the slideshow from the February 2020 Cambridge
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51 Inman Street Cambridge MA 02139 617-349-4099 |
135 Berkshire Street
Cambridge MA 02141 617-349-6553 |
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