Juneteenth is a time to reflect and a time for advocacy and recognizing historical and ongoing injustices Black communities experience. Below are Juneteenth resources you can use to support your efforts:

• Teaching Justice: Teaching Juneteenth
• Juneteenth.com
• PBS: History of Juneteenth and Why It’s Set to Become a National Holiday
• Tech & Learning: Best Juneteenth Can Inspire Students’ Reflections and Creativity
• Educators for Social Change: Teaching About Juneteenth
• Scoot Education: How to Celebrate Juneteenth in the Classroom
• HMH: Juneteenth Activities for the Classroom
• The 1619 Project: Education Materials Collection

NAA’s latest resource is the Out-of-School Time Leader’s Guide to Equitable Communications. This guide provides out-of-school time organizations with direction for using language and images in a way that is inclusive and equitable. Recognizing the power of language and visuals, this guide empowers out-of-school programs to embrace diversity and inclusion through thoughtful communication choices, fostering safe spaces for all youth and employees.

Download the guide here.

“The importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace cannot be understated. But when half-baked and under-developed strategies are implemented, they often do more harm than good, leading the very constituents they aim to support to dismiss DEI entirely.” - excerpt from DEI Deconstructed

Whether you lead an organization or participate in DEI efforts at any level, this thoroughly-researched guide explains what works - and what doesn’t - with improving organizational demographic composition, dismantling historical inequities, and building environments that meet individual needs.

Zheng connects data and experience to actionable frameworks. From outlining six types of power individuals hold within an organization (and how each type of power can affect change); to describing the individual roles; to giving an overview and history of DEI work,what is portrayed is not only illuminative - but also easily recognizable. For anyone looking to effectively make change, this combination of analysis and actions make DEI Deconstructed a truly invaluable roadmap to read and explore with your team.

Reviewed by Eva Jo Meyers, Co-founder of Spark Decks

A refreshingly pragmatic look at achieving DEI in organizations, Zheng provides an understandable introduction to DEI along with actionable strategies and techniques that can turn positive DEI “intentions” into positive measurable DEI “outcomes” that can lead to true change. The author provides hope that everyone can be a change-maker with varying roles and associated responsibilities that contribute to DEI movement. The reader will explore “movement” roles such as being an advocate, educator, or builder and how these informal roles align with one’s more formal role/position within an organization. With “takeaways”, reflective questions, and exercises at the end of each chapter, the only shortcoming of this book is that you will not want to put it down.

Reviewed by Jen Harris, Senior Consultant at The Forum for Youth Investment

A recent webinar hosted by the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE) and featuring NAA’s Director of Advocacy and Workforce Initiatives, Angelica Portillo, discussed strategies for promoting equity in the out-of-school time (OST) workforce. OST programs play an essential role in supporting the growth and development of children in their out-of-school hours. However, many challenges face the OST workforce, including inadequate compensation, inconsistent schedules, and limited professional development opportunities. These challenges are especially acute for workers from historically marginalized communities.

The webinar offered practical strategies that OST leaders can use to create more equitable environments and promote workforce development. The presentation centered on three main strategy areas: hiring and recruitment, professional development, and retention.

Regarding hiring and recruitment, the webinar suggested that OST leaders prioritize hiring from historically excluded communities and candidates with relevant lived experience. Additionally, leaders can promote equitable hiring practices by examining the language used in job listings and compensation packages, providing cultural responsiveness training for hiring teams, and more ideas from the National AfterSchool Association’s Guide to Equitable Hiring and Staff Development Practices.

The webinar suggested that leaders promote professional development and prioritize investing in ongoing training and opportunities to recognize employees’ unique experiences and skills. Leaders can also leverage networks within historically marginalized communities to develop and facilitate relevant professional development opportunities. For example, partnering with local community-based organizations or universities can offer accessible and relevant resources such as apprenticeships, paid internships, and mentorship opportunities.

Finally, to promote retention, leaders can offer competitive wages, provide opportunities for advancement, and ensure that the workplace culture is inclusive. Equity can be further fostered by promoting professional networks within the OST field, empowering employees to engage in advocacy and leadership.

The bottom line is, promoting equity requires a multifaceted approach that addresses hiring and recruitment, professional development, and retention. Through these strategies, OST leaders can create workplaces that support the growth and development of all their employees while providing equitable opportunities for all young people.

 Access the webinar recording here and the presentation slides here.

Currently over 10 million children and youth--many from historically-excluded groups--participate in afterschool and summer programs nationwide. In fact, for every one young person enrolled in an afterschool program there are three more waiting to get in, totaling 25 million kids who aren’t able to access programs.  At the National AfterSchool Association (NAA), we believe every young person deserves quality, enriching experiences outside of school that positively impact their development and help them thrive, however, currently there are multiple systemic barriers that impact access. 

The Challenge: Underrepresentation and Discrimination

As we work to remove barriers to program access we must work to ensure a strong Out-of-School Time (OST) workforce, pipeline of professionals ready to serve, and incentives and development opportunities that also create career pathways and a leadership pipeline. While front-line staff tend to reflect the communities they work in, our field hasn’t been able to retain and grow staff, particularly staff of color, into leadership positions. Many youth development leaders strive to advance equity, inclusion, and antiracism. However, a recent survey found that while 67% of front-line staff were people of color, only 58% of site-level directors and 34% of executive directors were people of color. 

Across sectors, resumes and applications with traditionally white-sounding names receive 50% more callbacks than those with names perceived to be associated with Black people. Because of long-standing pay disparities, women, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color), people in the LGBTQ+ community, and people from low-income communities are often at a disadvantage in salary negotiations, and this is particularly challenging when a salary range is not included in a job description. Once hired, Latinx women earn ~50% of what white men earn, roughly 54 cents to the dollar, and Black women make 64 cents to the dollar.  

Of course, inequity is not limited to race. One study showed 20% of staff who identify as LGBTQ+ feel bias against their sexual orientation has impacted their career advancement. Research indicates that 25% of transgender people have lost a job due to bias, and more than 75% have experienced some form of workplace discrimination. One-third of people with disabilities report experiencing bias at work, and more than half feel their careers are stalled. These are just a few examples among the many ways people experience discrimination due to their identity.

Finding a Way Forward

Because the OST sector is rooted in the principles of youth development including creating safe and welcoming spaces for all young people, the sector is primed to be a leader in using similar philosophies to enact equitable hiring and staff development practices. We realize there is a broader need for a comprehensive overhaul of job quality in our sector, from rethinking compensation to making benefits more accessible to creating career pathways.  We can do better, and we will absolutely need to in order to meet the current and future staffing demands of the growing OST field. 

This guide is just the beginning of support needed to make comprehensive changes to systems, policies, funding, and practices. It is intended to catalyze the OST workforce, our stakeholders and partners to examine systems, elevate practices and policies that will build and strengthen the field.  

ACCESS GUIDE

Recognizing the significance of Native American culture is something we as educators should strive to incorporate year round, but November shines the spotlight on it with Native American Heritage Month. It’s a time to put renewed focus on understanding and appreciating the history, achievements and contributions of Native Americans. OST professionals have an opportunity to be even more thoughtful and inclusive about incorporating these silenced voices and meaningful accounts that have been left out of the historical record.

NAA Member and past Next Generation Leader Honoree Dawn Marie Johnson, MSW, notes, “It is vital to spread awareness. Now more than ever, there is a calling for elevating Indigenous perspectives and voices.” She also shared the following list of her favorite resources to support you in your efforts. 

Juneteenth is a time to reflect and a time for advocacy and recognizing historical and ongoing injustices Black communities experience. Below are Juneteenth resources you can use to support your efforts. 

June is a time to learn about, celebrate, and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. #Pride lives in our history, our homes, our communities, and our hearts every day. Below are resources you can use to celebrate Pride Month this June and all year long. 

Resources from National Afterschool Association:

Looking for more resources to celebrate Pride Month? Check these out.

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. This is a time to pay tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America's history and are instrumental in its future success. Use these resources during Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month and throughout the year.

There has been a clear need to expand and implement diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) strategies across workplace sectors since the continued, deep-seated racial disparities were painfully illuminated with injustices in 2020. Diversity spurs business discussion and creativity, helping organizations stay resilient through challenging internal and external times. Approaching organizational transformation with a DEIA-focused lens also widens employee and managerial perspectives, allowing people’s life experiences to be considered, which in turn enhances productivity and innovation. Getting into the DEIA space for an out-of-school time organization can seem daunting, but there are a few stepping stones that lead toward an impactful DEIA approach.

Rework your internal and external communications. Establish open and honest communication across the organization by explaining how DEIA will help the organization, each department in unique ways, and each individual in the respective role.

Take an analytical approach. This work is about identifying, removing, and preventing barriers to success. Collecting data helps you identify and develop best practices through research and application that you can then measure impact and demonstrate success.

Prepare to manage change. Change naturally occurs when new policies, practices, and procedures are implemented. To curtail negative impact, you need to be able to collaborate with others. Assess organizational readiness and frame new directions in understandable and inspiring terms focused on bringing together different ideas and experiences.

Implementing these competencies will help reduce the number of obstacles in your way on the DEIA path for your organization, but there are lots of other factors to consider when working on dismantling a likely longstanding system. Check out a few of our other articles that discuss DEI work.

Building Belonging in Afterschool Staff Teams

The Role of Allyship in Racial Equity

Supporting and Strengthening Racial Equity

Over the last 20 years, Out-of-School Time (OST) has progressed with research, practice, and policies related to program quality, yet workforce stability, recruitment, and retention of direct-service workers continues to be a challenge. The National AfterSchool Association (NAA) recently launched the Thriving Out-of-School Workforce Initiative focused on creating a strong and valued profession. In talking about the initiative, Angelica Portillo, NAA’sDirector of Advocacy and Workforce Initiatives, shared, "Moving this invaluable workforce forward is necessary for upholding our commitment to equity, access, and quality."

Underrepresentation and discrimination are often encountered in the OST field.  Direct-service staff tends to reflect the communities they work in, but our field has not retained and grown those staff, particularly staff of color, into leadership positions.  A 2019 NAA study found that while 67% of front-line staff were people of color, only 58% of site directors and 34% of executive directors were people of color. OST is rooted in creating safe and welcoming environments for all young people and can lead by using similar philosophies to enact equitable hiring and staff development practices. 

A recent NAA webinar shared workforce trends and the new OST's Leaders Guide Equitable Hiring and Staff Development Practices. The presentation highlighted equity in recruitment and hiring, onboarding and professional development, and performance reviews and feedback.  Participants discussed their challenges and successes and learned from each other while reviewing the Guide’s best practices, guiding questions to support policy and practice changes, and no- to low-cost resources that support the implementation of equitable practices. The webinar audience also heard from Shawna Rosenzweig, Chief Strategy Officer at Camp Fire National Headquarters and NAA Board member, who stated, "We can't support young people if we aren't supporting our staff. This webinar and guide are an opportunity to begin mending one of the most challenging and broken systems in our field, which is the hiring process."

Heidi Ham, NAA’s Chief Operating Officer, concluded, “The guide is intended to catalyze the OST workforce, our stakeholders and partners to examine systems, elevate practices and policies that will build and strengthen the field. This resource is just the beginning of support needed to make the necessary comprehensive changes.”

A comprehensive OST job quality overhaul–rethinking compensation and schedules, making benefits accessible, and creating career pathways–is needed.  OST must design quality jobs and provide support to develop and sustain the workforce, beginning with equitable hiring practices. Guaranteeing job quality creates workforce stability, allowing afterschool professionals to deliver high-quality programs, ultimately leading to positive youth outcomes. 

Join us on August 31st at 1 PM EST for our next webinar, Designing Jobs That Support Program Quality.Quality OST programs rely on a stable workforce of skilled professionals. Together, we must design quality jobs and provide support to develop and sustain the OST workforce. Join this webinar to learn more about NAA's Thriving OST Workforce Initiative and provide input on the new OST Job Design Framework.

Additional NAA Resources:

Are you ready to commit to creating a thriving OST Workforce? Take the pledge today and share it with your colleagues!

Check out these NAA Articles on the OST Workforce:

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and a very long list of people killed by police and white supremacists, are Black, not unlike many of the young people participating in out-of-school time programs and the staff who work with them across the country. The compounding deaths of so many Black Americans, leading up to the death of Mr. George Floyd, must redefine how we as practitioners and leaders in this work see and feel justice and equity.

The work of youth development programs is historically rooted in equity—whether providing affordable childcare support to working families and/or academic interventions and enrichment opportunities to youth negatively affected by the achievement gap. Physical and emotional safety is a foundational prerequisite to relationships, youth engagement, and learning, so working to end racial violence and systemic inequity is integral to positive youth development.

Youth development work began as—and continues to be—a tool of equity. We commit to approaching our work through an equity lens, identifying where our work intersects with broader education, health and opportunity equity strategies. Otherwise, we (un)intentionally perpetuate systemic inequities rooted in institutionalized racism.

NAA stands in solidarity with Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and all people and communities who oppose racist policies and social injustices. We will listen to BIPOC members who work with and on behalf of children and youth in diverse and community-based settings to determine where our support is most valuable. We will use our communications channels to amplify the voices of BIPOC. We will act with more awareness and deliberate anti-racist efforts to create equitable systems.

Systemic and organizational change starts with each one of us. You can expect more from NAA than just the words in this statement. We are ready to listen with curiosity and humility, to learn, to reflect, and to act. We are starting with discussions about immediate actions we can take to fulfill these commitments and will explore opportunities to put these words into action in thoughtful, sustainable, and systemic ways.

This work is hard. It is not comfortable, but it is required. We must do better, we can do better, we commit to doing better.

Food is the one afterschool and summer learning program component necessary for survival. Food security is something we deal with daily.

Students or staff might ask themselves on any given day:

1. Did I eat?
2. Did I have enough to eat?
3. What would I like to eat?

Increasingly, students rely on school cafeteria food for food security. Many in our programs eat breakfast, lunch and a snack or meal during our care; many have nothing to eat when they go home. We have opportunities to play a vital role in the food security of the students we serve.

A staff member approached me one Friday with a third-grader who'd been caught stuffing snacks from our goodie box into her backpack—against program regulations. I sat down with the student, not asking, "Why did you steal?" but saying, "Tell me what's happening." I'm glad I took this approach, as I learned a valuable lesson on why I do what I do and how I run and implement programs.

The snack was for the student's little brother, on the waiting list for his grade level. Those six ounces of juice and Goldfish crackers often were the last thing she ate until returning to school Monday for the breakfast program. Her brother wasn't as fortunate: His school lunch—at 11:30 a.m.—was often his last meal. Saturday mornings, they looked forward to the snacks she'd gathered to get them through.

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Meal program launched in 2010. It's my mission to let people know about this amazing opportunity to serve students a heartier meal during afterschool—and the importance it could play in food security. Since 2010, we've seen California sites serving the meal program increase to about 2,600, serving approximately 7 million meals monthly. There's much work to do.

Think about food security as not just about food. Consider adding layers to your program-time food security approach:

1. Provide nutrition education activities or curriculum. Offer students a nutrition-related question of the day: "What is the second ingredient in your grain component?" "How many grams of sugar are in your juice?"
2. Provide resources for families during sign-out—information about farmer's markets or Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) offices, food banks and services for year-round help.
3. Create partnerships with food banks, farmers and neighborhood stores to provide families additional food. Have students create recipe cards and learn to prepare what they take home.
4. A school site garden adds nutrition education using garden boxes, pallets against a fence or portable wheelbarrow gardens. Help students understand where foods come from and how they grow. Allow opportunities for eating throughout your program offerings.
5. Add physical activity. Music and exercise or dance opportunities build happier, healthier students throughout your program day.

Continue talking about your role in students' food security and how it could help them achieve the goals and vision your program has identified to help address community needs.

Written by Bruno Marchesi, Chief Operating Officer, Center for Collaborative Solutions, who has more than 20 years of afterschool experience at all levels. Marchesi holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Spanish/Latin American Literature, and is a Fellow of the University of Southern California and Sierra Health Foundation Health Leadership Program. Bruno Marchesi is lauded among NAA's Most Influential in Health and Wellness 2017.

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2017 issue of AfterSchool Today magazine, the official publication of NAA.

I have an email folder titled Reading and Resources for capturing emails from things I’ve subscribed to on a whim, as a “victim” of a drip campaign, or for general news.  Full transparency, I only open the folder occasionally, looking to see what I’ve missed or perusing for something that might speak to me and inspire creativity.

I’m so glad I opened the folder earlier this month to find the Harvard Business Review Article, Seven Small Ways to Be a More Inclusive Colleague, by Nikita and Grace Lordan. The title got me, and then it got even better.

The authors describe workplace inclusion as an ever-evolving experience that requires contributions from every single employee, unrelated to their position within the organization, to make each person feel included. YES!

 “Everyone can decide to be an inclusive colleague and take small actions daily to improve our workplace culture.” –Nikita and Grace Lordan.

The article defines inclusion within an organization as “accepting and valuing each colleague’s talents and qualities—without imposing conformity.” It asserts that this approach makes employees happier at work and supports employees’ unique insights and heightened productivity that benefits the organization.

Many workplace practices, including “professionalism” and other “-isms,” are born from white dominant cultural norms, and these must be examined and fixed at the systems level. But, individuals can make a difference in fostering inclusion by increasing awareness of inclusive practices and forming and practicing inclusive behaviors until they become second nature.

While the article identified seven small ways to be a more inclusive colleague, here are the top three that I commit to practicing: 

If you want to learn more, I highly recommend the article and the small ways it shares to be a more inclusive colleague.

 PS - I know the Golden Rule says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” but my perspective is, “Treat others how they’d like to be treated.” So if you are unsure what someone needs, ask them.

Contributed by Heidi Ham, Chief Operating Officer, National AfterSchool Association

January is National Poverty in America Awareness Month to recognize over 40 million Americans living with hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, disabilities, and restricted access to participation in the democratic process due to their socioeconomic status. While poverty is a complex social issue, out-of-school time professionals can have a significant impact on positive outcomes for youth living in poverty by providing programs that support the whole family.

Accessibility – Families living in poverty—both parents with and without children in an afterschool program— report challenges regarding the availability of afterschool programs in their area. Impoverished parents were more likely than their higher-income counterparts to report that lack of a safe way for their children to get to and home from afterschool programs, hours of operation, and inconvenient locations were important factors in their decision not to enroll their child in a program.

Affordability – For parents living in communities of concentrated poverty, the cost of afterschool programs weighs heavily both in their selection of a program and in the decision some make to not send their child to any program at all.

Afterschool programs have the ability to help address some of the inequities facing families living in communities of concentrated poverty by prioritizing inclusion and meeting the need for safe, nurturing places for youth to thrive with adequate staffing and infrastructure.

There has been a clear need to expand and implement diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) strategies across workplace sectors since the continued, deep-seated racial disparities were painfully illuminated with injustices in 2020. Diversity spurs business discussion and creativity, helping organizations stay resilient through challenging internal and external times. Approaching organizational transformation with a DEIA-focused lens also widens employee and managerial perspectives, allowing people’s life experiences to be considered, which in turn enhances productivity and innovation. Getting into the DEIA space for an out-of-school time organization can seem daunting, but there are a few stepping stones that lead toward an impactful DEIA approach.

Rework your internal and external communications. Establish open and honest communication across the organization by explaining how DEIA will help the organization, each department in unique ways, and each individual in the respective role.

Take an analytical approach. This work is about identifying, removing, and preventing barriers to success. Collecting data helps you identify and develop best practices through research and application that you can then measure impact and demonstrate success.

Prepare to manage change. Change naturally occurs when new policies, practices, and procedures are implemented. To curtail negative impact, you need to be able to collaborate with others. Assess organizational readiness and frame new directions in understandable and inspiring terms focused on bringing together different ideas and experiences.

Implementing these competencies will help reduce the number of obstacles in your way on the DEIA path for your organization, but there are lots of other factors to consider when working on dismantling a likely longstanding system. Check out a few of our other articles that discuss DEI work.

Building Belonging in Afterschool Staff Teams

The Role of Allyship in Racial Equity

Supporting and Strengthening Racial Equity