Conference attendees can expect a robust and informational schedule of events that will expose them to innovative and scalable strategies to meet the summer and after-school learning needs of all children. *Workshop offerings are subject to change
| Organization | Session title | Description |
| Afterschool Alliance | Saving Summer: Advocating to Preserve our Programs | Developing a strong advocacy plan is key to cultivating broad support for summer learning. In this session, discover techniques to design an advocacy strategy to mobilize and strengthen support for your programs with elected officials and key stakeholders. |
| Alliance for a Healthier Generation | Preventing Opioid Use: Resources for Summer | By addressing risk and protective factors through positive youth development, summer programs can prevent opioid misuse. Attendees will leave this interactive workshop with free resources to strengthen existing wellness programming and empower children to thrive socially, emotionally and physically. |
| Big Thought | Building Learning Pathways, One Step at a Time | Join Big Thought to hear lessons learned from the kickoff of a multiyear pilot that employs Dallas City of Learning (DCOL) – winner of the 2016 NY Life Excellence in Summer Learning Award – to create more connectivity, visibility, and currency in the skills students acquire through DCOL’s ecosystem. |
| Big Thought | Summer Learning Hubs; Creating Sustainable & Viable Learning Ecosystems | In a 0-3 year strategy, cities, non-profits, and schools can work together to leveraged community resources and recognize the importance of representation to create viable learning ecosystems. Creating a strategy to build relationships and begin to impact communities through summer programming. |
| Boston After School & Beyond | How the City of Boston became a Summer Learning Classroom | In 10 years, the City of Boston has transformed into a classroom for over 14,000 students this year. Learn how through grassroots efforts, Boston has developed one of the most comprehensive summer learning programs in the country. Session accessible for summer learning professionals of all levels. |
| Camp EDMO | Technology Integration PK-8th | We will provide programmatic ideas and implementation strategies for organizations looking to integrate coding or tech based options into their curricular offerings for PK-8th grade. We will focus on scaffolding techniques to progress children through various levels of coding and computer skills. |
| Council Consulting, LLC | Make your lesson rise; cookie cutters not allowed | The internet is a great resource for finding lesson plans, but those lesson plans may not be appropriate or outcome- focused. A hands-on session to help programmers perform a quality check on lesson plans using the experiential learning cycle and the S.A.F.E features for intentional skill-building. |
| CRESST/University of Maryland & NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | Engaging Children and Their Families Through STEM | The NASA Family Science Night program focuses on the principles of whole-family learning through STEM activities. In this session for program developers and implementers, participants will explore research and depart with resources to integrate family engagement strategies into their programming. |
| CRESST/University of Maryland and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | Learning from Light: Fun Activities to Explore! | How do astronomers learn about objects that are too far away to visit? Everything we know about distant stars, galaxies, and more comes from one source of information–light. Come experience hands-on activities from NASA that anybody can facilitate. These activities work well for 5th grade and up. |
| DREAM (formerly Harlem RBI) | Learning about Learning: How to Provide High Quality Staff Training | Through the lens of adult learning, participants will learn practical strategies to create and facilitate summer learning for staff that will foster high-quality program outcomes. Program Leaders will leave with the ability to create and facilitate summer training to diverse seasonal staff. |
| Engaging Creative Minds | Our success story: How winning the 2016 Excellence Award helped us scale up our program & how you too can experience the same success! | The Excellence Award is so much more than a trophy and we’re going to show you exactly how this award created more opportunities than we ever dreamed possible. Join us in this interactive dialogue that mirrors our “woohoo culture.” We’ll take you through the last three years of our growth made possible by this award and how we have been able to scale-up our camp model without having to scale-up our organization! We’ll share stories about new funding opportunities, creative grants, not-so-obvious partnerships, and community engagement that you can implement as soon as you get home. |
| Evaluation Studio | 5 Ways to Embrace A Lot of Data with Very Little | Evaluation Studio conducted a research project to understand the data and program evaluation challenges & priorities out-of-school time programs face every day. This session will present 5 key actionable solutions on how to get started, and maintain a program evaluation with very few resources. |
| Family Literacy of Georgia | Georgia Afterschool Standards and Summer Planning Working Backwards | Are you seeking larger funding for your afterschool programs? Would you like to increase your collaborative efforts with your local school district? Are you ready for state evaluations using the afterschool standards model? Join us for a fun, engaging learning experience. Lots of freebies! |
| Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida | Supporting Academics and Igniting Learning (SAIL) into Summer Literacy | The SAIL into Summer Literacy Program is a literacy curriculum designed for at-risk elementary children to help stem summer learning loss through access to texts and engaging hands-on activities. Target audience – out-of-school time professionals serving children ages 5-11. |
| Food Research & Action Center | Summer Meals: Planning, Participation, and Partnerships | Did you know that federal funds are available to cover the cost of meals served at summer programs in every state? This session will cover how to get started serving summer meals, strategies and activities for engaging families and children, and best practices for partnerships and planning. |
| Free Library of Philadelphia | Infusing Literacy Into Summer Camp Programs | Learn how to create an easy literacy infusion program that will help camp programs integrate reading and literacy activities to help combat summer slide. Organizations looking to boost literacy in summer programs can join the Free Library of Philadelphia and Read by 4th to learn about our program. |
| Georgia Department of Education | Constructing Powerful Partnerships: A Game-Changer! | Family Engagement changes everything! This session is designed to share concrete tools to enhance the development of skills, increase knowledge, and recognize relevant resources for practitioners to engage families in propelling youth toward their maximum potential! |
| Georgia Public Broadcasting | Ready To Learn: Increasing Family Engagement Using Early Learning Media | Families may go on summer vacation, but that doesn’t mean you should take a break from family engagement. Join Georgia Public Broadcasting, education partners, and CPB-PBS Ready To Learn to discover community-wide strategies and resources for engaging parents of kids ages 2 to 8 with STEAM in summer. |
| Georgia Tech- CEISMC | Summer Matters: Bridging the Gap from Middle to High School and Beyond | Summer matters! It is important that we address what happens with youth during the summer months that affect students’ performance in and out of the classroom. This session will highlight how Georgia Tech programs bridge the gap from middle school to high school and beyond! |
| Higher Achievement | Summer Focus: Writing and Presentation Skills | In today’s world, writing and presentation skills get short shrift. Our summer program teaches topic selection, researching, writing/editing, and presenting. This session helps practitioners develop a compact course that integrates social justice themes and bridges a vital learning gap. |
| Horizons Greater Washington | Prioritizing Continuous Quality Improvement across Summer Learning Programs: A Deep Dive into SLPQA and Additional Tools to Measure Quality | Assessing quality leads to high quality summer programs, more student engagement, and well informed staff practices. This session will highlight how two Horizons Programs assess quality in their programs through various measures in the continuous quality improvement cycle. |
| InPlay | What do parents really want from summer programs? How program marketers can better reach underserved families. | Do you struggle to recruit students from underserved backgrounds? Understand the needs of families from an end-user perspective. InPlay will share multi-city field research and case studies on the needs of parents and students for analysis and discussion. |
| kid-grit | Theater Games, Life Skills and CASEL | Get ready to grow, glow, gasp, growl, giggle & grin! It’s no secret that improv has been utilized for decades as a method of encouraging creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, communication. Join us and we will show you how it can be used as a disguised tool for social-emotional learning too. |
| Kids Read Now | Finding and Engaging Community Partners & Sponsors | Why Community Involvement is Important: Your community should be invested in your students’ futures. Investing time and money into summer literacy can help your community take an active role in improving not only the students’ lives, but the community and its future. |
| Metro Parks Tacoma | Empowering Youth in the Water with Equity & Ease | Why is swimming the only sport that requires lessons before joining? Come see how our no-experience swim team approach breaks down real/perceived barriers and will put underrepresented populations in your aquatics programs right away. We have data! Please wear clothing comfortable to move in. |
| Metro Parks Tacoma | Demonstration of N0-Experience Swim Teams! | This is the in-water demonstration of the curriculum featured in our session titled “EMPOWERING YOUTH IN THE WATER WITH EQUITY & EASE.” Come and have fun with us in the pool ESPECIALLY if you do not know how to swim. All levels welcome! Wearing shorts and t-shirts is fine. Just watching is ok too. |
| Museum of Science and Industry | System 201: Building Partnerships to Link STEM and Literacy | Join staff from the Museum of Science and Industry and the Chicago Public Library to explore methods of establishing partnerships that encourage connections between literacy and STEM learning. Practical partnership tools and sample activities will be shared in this hands-on workshop. |
| Museum of Science and Industry | Summer STEM Greatest Hits | Come do the very best summer STEM activities developed by the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Your hands-on experience paired with philosophical grounding and our years of reflective practice will prepare you to do these activities and train your staff for a summer full of STEM fun! |
| National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine | Opportunities to Shape Summertime Experiences: Findings from the National Academies Report Tuesday, Oct 22, 1:45 – 3:00p |
In 2018, at the request of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Wallace Foundation, an interdisciplinary committee was convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to study how summertime experiences affect school-age children (rising K-12) across four areas of well-being: 1) academic learning and opportunities for enrichment; 2) social and emotional development; 3) physical and mental health and health-promoting behaviors; and 4) safety, risk-taking, and anti-and pro-social behavior. The committee reviewed the available evidence around summertime experiences including program effectiveness while also focusing on issues of equity. On the heels of the report’s release, members of the committee will convene again to discuss their approach to the study task, and key recommendations around improving the administration of and access to summertime programming, as well as outline future directions for research.
Speakers include: |
| National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment | Heard About the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment? Come Find Out More! | The federally-funded National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment, known as NCASE, is a training and technical assistance center that works to increase families’ access to high-quality afterschool and summer programs. Come find out how NCASE’s resources and TA opportunities can help you increase your program’s quality and reach high-need families! |
| National Summer Learning Association | Leadership Series: Education Town Hall – Monday, Oct 21, 5:15 – 6:30p |
National Perspectives Panelists:
Ms. Jodi Grant, CEO, Afterschool Alliance |
| National Summer Learning Association | Leadership Series: Life and Lessons of a Non-Profit CEO – Tuesday, Oct 22, 10:45a – 12:00p |
Come hear from four experienced and acclaimed national and local non-profit leaders on how and why they became the CEO of their non-profit. They will discuss skills they developed and lessons learned during their tenure. Hear what they wish they knew before stepping into the role and their advice to new leaders on what it takes to build and sustain a socially impactful, and financially successful organization.
Panelists: Ms. Ericka Miller, Isaacson, Miller (Moderator) |
| National Summer Learning Association | Leadership Series: Leveraging Summer to Prepare Our Future Workforce – Tuesday, Oct 22, 1:30 – 2:45p |
Summer learning can take place in multiple settings and include opportunities to discover new careers, passions and talents. Come hear how diverse and creative stakeholders are promoting summer internships and summer youth employment opportunities to equip young people with the experiences, skills, and mentors needed to secure a job and succeed in a changing economy.
Panelists: Dax-Devlon Ross, J.D., Dax-Dev/Third Settlements (Moderator) |
| National Summer Learning Association | Leadership Series: Successful Philanthropic Partnerships – Tuesday, Oct 22, 3:00 – 4:15p |
Fulfilling and sustaining non-profit’s mission requires program providers, funders and other stakeholders to partner around a common vision.
Come hear different local and national funders committed to youth discuss what makes for a successful partnership, what doesn’t, and they creative and hard lessons learned they have learned along the way to increase impact on the ground. |
| National Summer Learning Association | Research Roundtable Tuesday, Oct 22, 10:45a |
Pull up a seat at the table to share and discuss new research in the field of summer learning! NSLA will facilitate short presentations from partners (including a new report from the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Summertime Experiences and Child and Adolescent Education, Health, and Safety), and some free-flowing discussion on the opportunities and challenges for summer programs and research. If you have new research projects or findings you would like to share with the group, please email rgwaltney@summerlearning.org to get on the agenda for this workshop and receive instructions for preparation. |
| National Summer Learning Association | Leadership Series: The Business of Doing Good: Partnering with Socially Conscious Companies – Wednesday, Oct 23, 9:30 – 10:45a |
This workshop delves into the business of doing good and effective strategies to build win-win partnerships in your community. Get the inside track on how companies shape their corporate social responsibility priorities and how to position your organization as a worthy partner to enhance the goals of a corporate partner while advancing your mission to serve children and youth.
Panelists: Darcy Brito, Business PR Manager, Corporate Communications, Aflac Worldwide Headquarters |
| National Summer Learning Association | System 101: Building Community-wide Systems and Strategies for Summer Learning | In this workshop participants will receive Summer Learning Program Quality Assessment quality standards and hear about and share practice ideas for using them in continuous program improvement. The workshop will make extensive use of the new interactive program planning guide, Summer Starts in September. The facilitators will model activities and tools that participants can use to plan the summer learning program. |
| Oxnard School District | The Impact of Experience for English Learners | Experience based summer learning programs aid in closing the achievement gap for English Learners. The workshop will review the data from two programs in the State of California and share how to navigate designing an experience based program through maximizing partnerships. |
| Springboard Collaborative | Parents as Literacy Coaches: Making a difference all summer and beyond | In schools with 10% of parents at report card conferences, Springboard’s summer weekly family training workshops average 91% attendance. Through this session, we will share best practices in mobilizing families and empowering them to be effective literacy coaches during the summer months and beyond. |
| SummerLEAP at the College at Brockport | Rochester Model for High Quality, Fun, and Engaging Summer Programs: 7 Principles | The presentation will provide context for the development of the 7 Principles for High Quality Summer Programs developed by representatives from area programs, which reflect current research, evaluation, and local expertise. Discover how this model can be applied to your planning and implementation. |
| Sunrise of Philadelphia, Inc. | Trauma Buzz: Moving from Buzzwords to Concrete Action | “Trauma” is a current buzzword in the field of education and youth development. In a non-clinical context, how do we actually implement trauma sensitive practices? Join for an opportunity to sort through theory and move to concrete ideas for implementation. |
| The Fresh Air Fund | DEI: “For Us, by Us” Staffing & Leadership | Leadership in camping and youth development is widely homogeneous. Summer learning programs have the unique opportunity to blend leadership development and pipelines to employment. How can we develop leaders “for us by us?” What can we do to help young staff see the career potential in our fields? |
| The YMCA of Greater Richmond | Mythbusting–Scaling Summer | Mythbusting–Scaling Summer is targeted at leaders and decision-makers who are grappling with how to amplify their work through partnership. Learn about recent research on scaling, examine tools to help identify readiness to collaborate, and hear the true life story of the YMCA of Greater Richmond! |
| TPT PBS | Building STEM Superheroes in OST | Want to create equitable, inclusive science learning communities? Join us for an interactive session about equity strategies that engage and inspire all K-2 learners. Explore the strategies in action as you do hands-on-activities from a new PBS program Hero Elementary. |
| Tuscaloosa City Schools | How we made summer learning core to our district strategy | The research is clear that summer learning loss is a major contributor to achievement gaps but few districts treat summer learning as core to their strategy to close those gaps. One district has committed to “normalizing” summer learning for all students and exponential change is already evident. |
| VOX Teen Communications | Youth voice & choice in summer learning | Increase youth voice and choice for increased student engagement and program outcomes! Participants will experience interactive strategies for meaningful youth voice and hear from an organization that used these strategies to train staff and improve project-based learning for a totally “lit” summer. |
| Washington State University | Training youth to facilitate community building, team building and closing activities: tips, materials, and mobile app | We know the power of building youth groups using community builders and other activities. It is nice to be the leader. What about the youth? Time to stop being the leader and teach the youth to lead these activities. Will share the success from youth in Saipan, CNMI to Tacoma, WA. Play and learn! |
| Wayne State University | WSU Math Corps: a revolutionary K-12 curriculum | The Wayne State University Math Corps’ nationally renowned mathematics and mentoring program has rewritten all of arithmetic and algebra to make a large amount of learning possible in a short summer program. This session presents an overview and the main ideas behind this revolutionary curriculum. |
| WRiTE BRAiN WORLD | Every Picture Tells THEIR Story! | This session will explore project-based literacy learning for grades K-12. Activities utilize wordless picture books, designed to support the development of 21st-Century, social-emotional, and metacognition skills through inherently engaging, non-threatening, disguised learning. |