Thank you to the 200 out-of-school time directors, staff, educators, and partners who came together 10.28.22 for our 13th Annual Conference to:
- Renew and reignite your love and passion for this work;
- Be inspired;
- Reconnect with peers;
- Reflect on the critical work you do and celebrate it; and
- Be replenished with the energy and strength needed to continue the amazing work you do.
We hit refresh on the last three years, not that we may forget them, but so that we can move forward—restored and rejuvenated—to continue to make a difference for Vermont’s children and youth.
Brooklyn Raney
Brooklyn Raney is an experienced teacher, coach, and administrator who has spent the last decade in schools. In her free time, she loves to hike, cross-country ski, snowshoe, and travel. Nothing, however, makes her happier than working with youth. Brooklyn is the founder and lead trainer of One Trusted Adult, providing programming for educators, professionals working with youth, parents and guardians, and young people, all to ensure that every young person has at least one trusted adult. She is the founder and director of the Girls' Leadership Camp, a group that hosts a one-week summer camp for middle school girls, as well as one-day boosts and leadership conferences. She is also a co-founder of Generation Change, a nonprofit that seeks to embolden youth to be empathetic and compassionate change makers through cross-generational mentorship. As a former elite-level athlete at Colgate University and an MA graduate in Educational Theater from NYU, Brooklyn reaches a wide audience with her unique energy, interactive approach, storytelling, and humor. She resides on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire with her husband, son, and two dogs.
AM WORKSHOP BLOCK | 10:00 AM–12:00 PM
Spark Session 1 | 10:00 AM–11:00 AM
Bids for Connection
Trainer: Brooklyn Raney
Refreshing new ideas and strategies for using presence and playfulness to build trust and make the most of the moments you have with the young people in your care. Come prepared to participate and play!
College and Career Exploration Opportunities for Vermont Afterschool Students
Trainer: Dana Oliver and Sarah Kresser
Vermont middle and high school students are trying out college and learning about careers through programs offered as part of CCV’s secondary education continuum. From Access Days through Intro to College and Careers, Dual Enrollment, Early College, and the McClure Promise, students have opportunities to dip their toes in or dive full-time into college, all at no cost. Learn about these programs so you can make your Afterschool students aware of them! In addition to an explanation of these programs, participate in a demonstration of a CCV Access Day, during which middle and high school students visit CCV to attend mini-college-classes, play games to learn about college and career pathways, and have fun in a college environment. Let’s connect so you can bring YOUR Afterschool program to CCV for a free Access Day.
Destination Imagination – STEAM on a Team
Trainer: Jane Youngbaer
Have some fun with creative activities you can use with students of all ages in your program. These Instant Challenges will involve building, improvising, and combinations that incorporate STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math).
How Do I Talk to Kids about LGBTQIA+ Topics?
Trainer: Amber Leventry
Amber will give people the tools and confidence to talk to kids about what it means to be gay, transgender, and gender nonconforming. Learn tips on ways to answer kids’ questions, start conversations about sexuality and gender, and foster a love of diversity. Amber will discuss the significance of accepting and affirming our kids’ LGBTQIA+ identity.
Spark Session 2 | 11:00 AM–12:00 PM
You and Your Labor Market
Trainers: Tara Howe and Nathan Piper
This session focuses on the work of HireAbility VT in serving youth with disabilities to explore careers, gain job readiness skills, and identify potential education/training opportunities. As programs look to opportunities for youth to engage in experiences around the world of work, we will discuss how we collaborate with employers as a dual customer. Providing youth with every opportunity to gain hard and soft skills related to having a job and what the possibilities are out there as they transition from high school is an important goal in our partnership with families, schools, community partners, and employers.
Keeping Youth Active
Trainers: Tiffany Cross and Amanda Cowan
In this workshop participants will learn why physical activity is so important to our youth. Participants will learn active games, small/large group games, cooperative play, ‘instant activities’, physical skill building activities and more. We will also talk about ways to accommodate these activities to meet the many needs of our youth participating. We will discuss ways to build teamwork, sportsmanship and gain more positive character traits. This workshop will have you up and moving!
Encouraging Healthy Choices in Youth
Trainers: Maire Folan and Lori Pinard
In this workshop we review important nutrition messages and talking points salient to younger audiences while leading participants through a hands-on snack making activity. We can discuss healthy snacks to serve in the after school setting and ways to involve students that will encourage them to make good food choices.
Deep Dive Session 1 | 10:00 AM–12:00 PM
STRONG: An Introduction to the Strengthening Families Framework
Trainer: Matt Wolf
In this interactive and conversational workshop participants will get an overview of the Protective Factors that make up the Strengthening Families Framework. Each factor of the framework will be reviewed, and attendees will participate in introductory activities and conversations as they explore the Protective Factors. This is meant to be an introduction to the framework with examples of activities that can be used in your work with the framework as well as teach it to others
Minding Your Mind: 5 Practices for Your Best Mind
Trainer: Beth Martell
Our human mind is complex. This training is a brief owner's manual of your mind with practices for nurturing your best mind: 1. Staying calm 2. Being present 3. Focusing thought & feeling 4. Refraining from judgement 5. Being your own caring, wise advocate.
The MINT: Youth Programming in a Makerspace
Trainer: Kim Griffin from The MINT
What is a Makerspace? What kind of programming is possible in a a Makerspace? How can Makerspaces support STEAM/STEM exploration? This interactive workshop introduces participants to the Makerspace movement and explores hands-on ways to ignite creativity while support NGSS STEM learning.
Full Day Strand Part 1 | 10:00 AM–12:00 PM
Project WILD and Aquatic WILD Curriculum*
Trainer: Ali Thomas
The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department offers workshops to formal teachers, non-formal educators, and pre-service educators. These workshops are provided by Fish & Wildlife staff, free of charge, and participants also receive a free guide. Project WILD are environmental education guides that are interdisciplinary and supplementary, and each incorporates wildlife concepts and educational skills. All of the activities in the guides are correlated to national academic standards.
*Note. This is part 1 of a 2-part, full-day workshop. Participants must register for and attend both.
PM WORKSHOP BLOCK | 1:15 PM–3:15 PM
Spark Session 3 | 1:15 PM–2:15 PM
Enriching Your Program with STEM
Trainer: Katie O’Shea
STEM activities have wonderful benefits for youth and leading them can be simple and fun. Through this workshop, you will learn the importance of STEM programming and how to integrate and build quality STEM programming using simple elements and resources. We will discuss the quality indicators of STEM, the NGSS practices, and the 7 “big ideas” (cross cutting concepts) that span across all of STEM. You will leave this workshop with resources to use with your staff and youth, and the capability to lead various kinds of STEM programming.
Connecting Children with Food and Food Access Resources in 3rd Space Programs
Trainers: Keely Agan and Mariana Sears
In this workshop we will address topics such as the At-Risk Afterschool Meal Program, Afterschool grants (like the farm to school grant, which afterschool programs are eligible for), connecting families with 3SquaresVT, school meal applications, and partnerships with school food service programs. Our hope is to show Afterschool stakeholders how they can be champions of food access in their communities, and why it is imperative that Afterschool stakeholders know where and how to connect children and families to food access resources.
Supervision 101
Trainer: Mandi Harris
In this workshop participants will learn tips to becoming a successful supervisor. Topics include how to effectively delegate to staff who possess varying skill and motivation levels, tips for giving effective feedback to staff, understanding the steps to successful performances reviews, and strategies for dealing with challenging staff members.
Spark Session 4 | 2:15 PM–3:15 PM
Destination Imagination – STEAM on a Team
Trainer: Jane Youngbaer
Have some fun with creative activities you can use with students of all ages in your program. These Instant Challenges will involve building, improvising, and combinations that incorporate STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math).
Threading the Needle: Stitching School, Family and Community Together Through Afterschool
Trainers: Mandy Chesley-Park and John Armory
Afterschool and summer programs are generative spaces to connect school, family and community; in fact, our work is uniquely positioned to foster deep connections between these three vital child-centered spaces. Join Mandy Chesley-Park and John Amory in an interactive workshop model that will thread these three communities together. Be prepared to collaborate, share, and create. Our hope is that you’ll leave feeling like you've just enjoyed a great, nourishing family dinner (the healthy-relationship family type).
Telling Your Story
Trainer: Matt Wolf
In this workshop, youth and/or adults will move through a framework for how to compose their story, or talking points, to make sure they have the most meaning and impact on their audience as possible. Participants will walk away from the session with the experience of moving through the process as a group, as well as receiving a hand-out that will support them in moving through the process with youth on their own when the need to speak up arises. An interactive workshop that breaks down the things to consider when talking to other people about a change you want to see made, or an awareness you want to make sure they walk away from you having gained.
Deep Dive Session 2 | 1:15 PM–3:15 PM
Understanding Culture and Self-Care
Trainer: Kheya Ganguly
In order to care for others, we must also care for ourselves. How do we create a culture of resilience, community care and self-care? We will explore how trauma, resilience and care intertwine in order to better understand how we can care for ourselves and others during times of increasing trauma and stress.
Understanding Developmental Relationships
Trainer: Allison Smith from the University of Vermont Extension 4-H Program
Developmental relationships are the connections between youth and adults that help youth thrive. Through these important relationships, we can support youth as they cultivate life skills and become contributing members within their community. The recipe for creating these special relationships is no secret! Join us to explore and learn about the 5 key elements of developmental relationships. You will leave this workshop with practical strategies and a plan in place on how you can strengthen your relationships with youth to help them thrive.
Where’s Your HALLPASS?
Trainer: Cara Sargent
History, Arts, Languages, Literature, Philosophy, and Social Sciences. I know the title is corny. I was aiming for a cool acronym, like STEM. We spend a lot of time focusing on STEM, and it is important that we and our students recognize the tremendous value of STEM education. But there are other, equally important, areas of knowledge with which our students need to be familiar to be successful. These fields of study are based on human culture, human values, and human ideals: the humanities. As the kid who was passionate about fantasy literature, mythologies, and the cool old stuff in my grandparents' barn, I'd like to see more programs that offer history, literature, drama, etc., in ways that engage our students.
Full Day Strand Part 2 | 1:15 PM–3:15 PM
Project WILD and Aquatic WILD Curriculum*
Trainer: Ali Thomas
The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department offers workshops to formal teachers, non-formal educators, and pre-service educators. These workshops are provided by Fish & Wildlife staff, free of charge, and participants also receive a free guide. Project WILD are environmental education guides that are interdisciplinary and supplementary, and each incorporates wildlife concepts and educational skills. All of the activities in the guides are correlated to national academic standards.
*Note. This is part 2 of a 2-part, full-day workshop. Participants must register for and attend both.
