Afterschool Webinars

This May, the New York Life Foundation will make 26 awards to out-of-school time programs serving disadvantaged youth through their Aim High grant program. Join us for this webinar to learn more about the grant opportunity, eligibility and expectations from Marlyn Torres, Senior Program Officer at the New York Life Foundation, and Dan Gilbert, the administrator of the grant application and review process. Have your questions ready, and hear tips on making your application stand out from the crowd. 

The OST field has come a long way over the past two decades, and the newly released book, The Growing Out-of-School-Time Field: Past, Present, and Future, delves into the ways in which the OST field has grown and matured as a partner in helping children and youth reach their full potential. In part one of two in this webinar series, hear from leading researchers in the OST field who wrote chapters in the book focused on the critical role the OST field has played to promote positive youth development over the years.

Providing students with the tools and knowledge they need to become creators of technology, not just consumers, is a growing priority for afterschool programs across the country. Join us for a conversation with Sarah Carter, from SciGirls, and Ricarose Roque, of the University of Colorado, Boulder, for a conversation on overcoming these obstacles, from picking the right tools to teach computer science after school to training program facilitators to use them and beyond.

Youth need safe spaces to discuss their thoughts, fears, and hopes and to learn how to communicate their ideas while understanding and integrating the ideas and experiences of others. In this webinar, learn from voices in the field about how they are approaching these tough but important discussions and be introduced to some of the many tools that may help you facilitate these discussions in your own program.  

Like schools and other community spaces, afterschool providers across the country have noticed an uptick in incidents of bias over the past year among students, parents, and even sometimes staff. This behavior might range from insensitive jokes and remarks, to hateful language or graffiti, to bullying and harassment. If one of these incidents happens in your program, how you respond is critical for maintaining the trust and respect of youth and their families.

You asked for advice from peers on what to do for Lights On Afterschool events, and in this webinar we deliver. Join us to hear from an afterschool program director and get a walkthrough from the Afterschool Alliance’s own Faith Savaiano of the tips and tricks we’ve gathered from 15 years of Lights On Afterschool celebrations. We will be joined by Afterschool Ambassador Ayana Crichton from Cranston, Rhode Island. 

Want to stop budget cuts?  Your Lights On Afterschool celebration can help. In this webinar, Afterschool Alliance VP of Policy Erik Peterson will run us through the gamut of potential threats to afterschool funding that make this Lights On Afterschool so critical and answer questions from the audience about the latest developments in federal policy. We will then be joined by Dan Gilbert from the Alliance, who will show you the basics of planning a successful Lights On Afterschool event.

Building the literacy proficiency of all learners is essential to equip them with the skills they will need as they navigate through the academic, professional, and personal facets of their lives. Tune in to this webinar and hear from programs featured in the Dollar General Afterschool Literacy Issue Brief, “Afterschool Providing Key Literacy Support to English Language Learner Students,” including the Dollar General Afterschool Literacy Award winner, Columbus State Community College’s ESL Afterschool Communities. 

Across the country, law enforcement officers and communities have been engaging in conversations about what it means to work together as a community. Afterschool programs can play an important role in creating a safe and welcoming environment for these conversations to take place In this webinar, we will hear from a law enforcement officer and afterschool program director who work together to foster constructive relationships between youth and law enforcement.