Professional Development Opportunities
It's our goal to provide a broad array of quality learning opportunities for those who work with youth in the third space and out-of-school time. We also want to emphasize that many of the trainings are for anyone working with youth, and we hope you will find something that lights you up and helps you further your career, hone your skills, and improve outcomes for youth.
At any point in the year, afterschool program directors, site directors, or other authorized individuals charged with securing professional development trainings can request to schedule a specific training. Some workshops can be provided in a virtual format. The cost of trainings is typically $120/hour (minimum 2 hours per training) though pricing may vary according to training length and partnership agreement. Licensed school-age programs are eligible for a cost reduction of 50% (limited reduced funding is available per year). Additional training costs may apply. Please note that we require a minimum of 10 participants for each workshop (with a maximum of 40 participants).
And visit our Event Calendar to find upcoming scheduled workshops.
Vermont Afterschool offers Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Methods workshops that have been developed to help adults improve their practice in supporting social, emotional, and cognitive development in their programs.
Afterschool Essentials is an accelerated half-year program that Vermont Afterschool offers FREE for afterschool staff working in licensed afterschool programs. It is designed to meet the needs of the professional with limited experience in the afterschool setting and is connected to our Afterschool Foundations Certificate.
This four-part series is for leaders of licensed programs in the afterschool field in Vermont and is specifically designed for experienced directors and site coordinators who are looking for that next level of growth and development.
Do you want to support a group of youth to create change in their lives? Helping Them to Lead the Way is a five-part workshop series on the knowledge-base and skill sets for raising up youth voices and supporting them to create the change they see is needed in their lives, schools, and/or communities. From individual self-advocacy to empowering community level youth leadership, this series will walk participants through an Empowerment Model for creating youth-led change, while supporting them in creating their own youth leadership development plan.
This series will provide participants with knowledge of adolescent development, leadership, and relationship content relevant to each phase of the empowerment model, and will present key principles and activities of youth empowerment, while supporting participants to develop their own youth leadership goal and accompanying plan to achieve that goal. Culminating in the presentation of participants’ youth empowerment project plans and the design of an evaluation of their effectiveness from the youths’ perspective, this series provides the content and experiences for developing and planning a youth-led change initiative in partnership with youth and empowering their leadership development as change-makers.
Dates:*
Micro-credential course overview, Introduction to the Awareness Phase and the Power of Relationships | Friday, January 10, 2025 (10:00 AM–4:00 PM | in-person location TBD*
The Visioning Phase, Leadership Practices and Youth Voice Frameworks | Date/Time TBD (by the group) | 2-hour Virtual
The Transformation Phase, Supporting Leadership Development and Creating Change | Date/Time TBD (by the group) | 2-hour Virtual
The Growth Phase, Laying the Groundwork and Preparing the Adults for Youth-Led Change | Date/Time TBD (by the group) | 2-hour Virtual
Project Presentations, Peer Evaluation, Reflection, and Celebration | TBD (10:00 AM–2:00 PM) | in-person location TBD*
*We will do our best to find locations for the in-person sessions that are centralized to registrants’ locations.
Cost: FREE
Click here to register before November 15, 2024 deadline.
If you work with adolescents, are a parent or caregiver of a kid age 12-18, or are wanting to learn how you can support youth experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or in crisis, please consider taking this free 8-hour workshop.
Youth Thrive is an evidence-informed framework for approaching our work with youth ages 9-24. Instead of a sole focus on limiting risk factors or maintaining a problem-free environment, Youth Thrive teaches youth work professionals and parents to recognize, support, and build on protective and promotive factors. Based in strengths-based and positive psychology, this approach can be used in any setting where youth and families are served.
Click here for more info and to register for an upcoming training.
Vermont Afterschool partners with the Child Development Division (CDD) to offer FREE 3-credit, online courses for afterschool professionals through the Community College of Vermont (CCV). This is a tuition-free opportunity for those who are currently working in a regulated child care setting.
The Afterschool and Youth Work Certificate is offered by the Community College of Vermont (CCV) as a way to help youth work professionals advance in their careers. The certificate provides students with essential skills to develop, support, and administer high-quality afterschool and youth programs for young people ages 5-18. Emphasis is on developing programs that use youth voice, active learning, planning and reflection, and supporting effective collaboration with families and community partners. Vermont Afterschool worked with CCV to develop this certificate, which can be completed fully online for a total of 24 credits. Scholarships are available.
In recognition that we have so much to learn from each other, we offer different types of community of practice as a way for staff to come together and reflect on how they can improve personal and program practices. Learning comes from facilitated discussions with each other. These monthly communities of practice are FREE.
Vermont Afterschool regularly hosts field forums on different topics relating to out-of-school time providers and professionals including health, safety guidance, funding, advocacy, and more. Visit our Event Calendar to find upcoming field forums to attend.
Vermont Afterschool’s Annual Conference, typically held in late-October/early-November, brings together Vermont’s out-of-school time directors, staff, educators, and partners for a full day of carefully-curated workshops across three breakout sessions, an inspiring keynote, exhibitors, networking, and a celebration of the important work afterschool professionals do for Vermont’s children, youth, and families.
Bookmark our conference webpage to stay updated on plans for the next annual conference!