BOOST Newsletter Sponsorship

Jaime Stephanidis, Consultant, American Institutes for Research,
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

February 2011

Thank you for all that you do to support children, youth, families and communities. You make a difference.

The BOOST Collaborative Team

Allison Spalding grew up in Redlands, California where she played soccer and ran cross country. She also participated on her school's Mock Trial team that placed third in California and went on to win a national competition. Allison is currently a senior at the University of San Diego and will be graduating in May. She is majoring in Communication Studies with a minor in Art History. She currently works in her school's Alumni Office to fundraise scholarship money for students. Before joining the BOOST Collaborative, Allison worked in the Office of Continuing Education at USD. This past summer she worked as a resident camp counselor in Cape Cod, Massachusetts mentoring teens in a summer-long leadership program. She enjoys spending time at the beach and close friends and exploring the city of San Diego.

Contest will run from Monday, March 14th to Monday, March 21st, 5:00pm (PST).

Trainings in San Diego, CA 

Moving At Risk High School Students To College And Beyond 

Presented by Ray Trinidad,

Chief Executive Officer,

!Mpact People,

Chula Vista, CA

March 25, 2011

San Diego, CA

Please join Ray Trinidad and Cesar Guerrero for a presentation and training on working with at-risk youth.  They will discuss ways to support these students through effective after-school programs that have proven to move them towards a college trajectory.  Be ready to share your ideas, raise questions, and find solutions.

For more information on BOOST Collaborative trainings, please visit our online Professional Development Calendar www.boostcollaborative.org/calendar.

 For questions about registration please contact Christine McKenna: christine@boostcollaborative.org or 619-232-6678 x1.

Using Voice and Choice in After School Programs

As afterschool professionals, we give a lot of lip service to the phrase "voice and choice". Theoretically, we understand that students feel more ownership of their afterschool programs when they are able to voice their opinions and provide input into the program. Sounds easy, right?  Like most good ideas, however, implementation is much more difficult than it sounds.

Students are most likely not going to gather and discuss collaboratively what they want the program to be. There is also a good chance that their ideas may not fit within the program's budget or be logistically possible, especially for smaller programs that may have limited monetary budgets, staff, and students. And, let's face it, it's easier for staff to make a schedule and expect youth to follow it. It takes time for both staff and students to become used to the idea of students having significant input. Staff needs to learn to shift authority to the students, and students need to take the responsibility seriously. Depending on what the students experience during the school day, the concept of voice and choice may be a new concept to them as well....

To read more of Tara Donahue's blog entry, please click here. 

Hopa Mountain is based in Bozeman, Montana and offer teens 12-18 opportunities to strengthen their leadership skills through adventure-based experiential challenges, inquiry-based science activities, local art projects, self-awareness exercises, and community service initiatives. With the local school district designating more half days than usual they saw an opportunity to pitch in and help keep kids busy. They have partnered up with LINKS for Learning, the local afterschool program, to provide activities on scheduled days when there is no school. " Rather than the youth of the community hanging out in front of the TV all day, our organizations came together to offer 'Day's On' activities" said Jamie Diehl, Project Coordinator. It allows "the teens an opportunity to use some of the skills that they learn throughout the year.  They are able to do this somewhat with their peers during our program, but the idea that our teens are "leading" the younger kids puts them in a different position."

Most recently the partnership brought 8 teens and 25 youth to Yellowstone National Park for an afternoon of snow shoeing, something which many of the students had never done. The snowshoeing adventure was guided by two Park Rangers and included a student planned skit to explain the geology of the park. The teens were encouraged to use their skills and take a leadership role in ensuring the younger youth were safe and followed the rules of the event. They also got to plan some of the fun and run games and icebreakers. At the end of the day the park invited everyone in to the Yellowstone Museum to warm up and learn even more about the history of the park and the many animals that call it home.

To learn more about Hopa Mountain click here.  

Kelcie Kopf, Regional Sports Manager, has been a tremendous asset to Special Olympics Southern California, San Diego County, for over four years.  As Regional Sports Manager, Kelcie is responsible for the planning and execution of all sports training and athletic competitions held in San Diego County.  With over 1,000 athletes throughout the county, this is not an easy feat!  In 2010 alone, she was responsible for two large multi-sport competitions: Spring Games, held at La Jolla High School, (over 400 athletes competed in aquatics, basketball, and bocce); and Fall Games, (over 250 athletes competed in softball, soccer, and tennis).  Additionally, Kelcie plans a bowing tournament, golf tournament, swim meets, gymnastic meets, and track meets each year.  With a larger vision for Special Olympics' future, she has also worked hard to establish presence in several of the school districts through Project Unify, an education-based project that uses sports and education programs to activate young people to develop school communities where all youth are agents of change-fostering respect, dignity and advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities.

Kelcie earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Exercise and Sport Sciences from Texas Tech University.  When she is not working diligently to further the mission of Special Olympics, she can be found coordinating volunteer support for San Diego Indie Fest, spending time with friends, or running with her adorable dog, Scout.

                                 - Nominated and Submitted by:  

                                   Jaime Brown, Regional Director
                                   Special Olympics Southern California 

Do you have a staff member or colleague that goes above and beyond every day? Send a 200 word feature and photo of them to kate@boostcollaborative.org

One of the most rewarding things I've learned over my 30-plus years of sharing music is that adding sign language to lyrics is universally appealing. The mother of a toddler with a disability first showed me some basic signs that her son responded to with enthusiasm and success.  This got me started, and inspired me to write a song, "Hearts and Hands" about how we can all benefit from each other's differences by using our hearts and hands. (Links shown below.)  

Since then....many songs and signs later...I have found that all ages, from babies to elders, respond instinctively to learning and using signs (referring to American Sign Language/ASL) especially when they accompany the rhythms, melodies and storylines of songs.

Here is a short and sweet song that I wrote that you can easily teach to others.  "One World/Un Mundo" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrjIuC6dAmk) adapts itself beautifully to sharing with sign-language.  In this video I'm shown performing it in several settings in Spanish and English.  You will notice that not all words are signed and that there are some subtle variations in signs (for instance, watch for "sing" shown 2 different ways.) Signs may vary depending on your source, so when faced with a choice, decide with your students which ones you prefer. The important thing is to do what you're comfortable with, but be willing to learn and grow, and above all, have fun!  You can also hear this song in Russian on my album Circle Time 2, Track #9. (See "Albums" link below.)  

I encourage you to add any other language that you're familiar with.  The signs you use remain the same so that as you sing each language, the signs are reinforced.

You will find many other songs with strong images that lend themselves to signing.  Try typing this: american sign language "you are my sunshine" in the youtube.com box. As you work on a song, start by inserting a few key signs, and as you get more comfortable, keep filling in with more.  Older students might be given the task of researching several signs each and then teaching them to the group.

To help you further, visit this ASL site that is wonderful for clear modeling of countless individual words/signs.  http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi

Happy singing and signing together!

Lisa Monet

Hearts and Hands video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMVtSslLvZQ

Official site and contact info: http://lisamonetmusic.com/

Albums and song samples: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LisaMonet

See Lisa Monet at the BOOST Conference on Friday, April 29th!

A Dynamic Framework for Understanding the Complex Work of Quality Out-of-School Time Programs

What are the keys to quality out-of-school time programming? This study seeks out the answer to this question. Phase 1 examines promising practices in five out-of-school-time programs. It goes beyond program practices to explore aspects of organizational effectiveness that supported quality programming. Phase 2 expands on findings from Phase 1 to study the extent to which quality programs are bolstered by organizations that have characteristics of "learning organizations."  

To download the report, please click here.