Dara Murray, Manager of Program Quality and Evaluation
What should your program be doing right now to get ready for the summer?

Dara Murray, NSLA's Manager of Program Quality and Evaluation, shares six strategies that you can start to implement today.

1) Pick one thing you want to improve this summer.
Choose a goal that can realistically be accomplished in only a few days, weeks or months. Think in terms of tweaks rather than major overhauls.

2) Communicate with parents, families and caregivers.
Begin reaching out to families and come up with a strategy for sustaining communication throughout the summer. Promote and market your program to families by telling them why youth love your program.

3) Finalize your staff training.
Now's the time to polish your staff training until it shines! Finalize your schedule for training. Consider incorporating time for staff to practice lesson plans together and touch on behavior management and instructional strategies. If you have returning staff, incorporate them into the training as a facilitator building off their strengths.

4) Create a summer 2016 chant or cheer!
Creating a unique summer program culture can increase participation, attendance and engagement. Creating a unique identity for your program doesn't have to be hard. Start with something small like a camp song, chant or cheer that includes your program's name. If you've already done this, great work! Consider creating a morning or afternoon camp-wide gathering where all staff and youth can do the chant together.

5) Craft a timeline for staff observations and feedback.
Before the summer starts, create a schedule for the site director to observe each direct service staff member at least once and provide timely feedback after the observation. Be sure to share strengths as well as suggested improvements. This helps keep staff engaged and bought into the program and ensures high-quality delivery throughout the summer!

6) Formalize youth input.
After the summer ends, you'll want to kick back or sneak in a quick vacation before school-year programming begins. That's why you should plan now for collecting youth feedback at the end of the program.

Give a Summer recently released a new report on youth access to summer opportunities at five Boston area public middle schools.

The report shows how schools, and eventually communities, can translate these findings into specific actions to increase youth access.

This comprehensive, in-depth look at access to summer opportunities in Boston draws on detailed surveys with more than 500 students and 200 parents over two years.
Momentum is Building



In May 2010, the Annie E. Casey Foundation published a special report, Early Warning: Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, to launch the national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.

When launched in 2010, the goal was to have at least 12 states and 24 communities increase by 100 percent or more the number of low-income children reading on grade-level by the end of third grade.

The Campaign is at the midpoint of a decade-long commitment made in response to Early Warning's Call to Action.

One early strategic decision that has paid off was a focus on summer learning.

Read the Campaign's latest publication, Midpoint Snapshots, to learn about their progress.

Days of Advocacy

Earth Day (Today-April 22)
Celebrate afterschool environmental education with the Afterschool Alliance in a tweetchat at 2 PM EST. Use #AfterschoolEE.

Encourage students to complete their education beyond high school. Post a picture of yourself wearing your favorite college gear using #ReachHigher.

Thank those who work with youth during out-of-school hours using #HeartofAfterschool.

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