The Y4Y Insider - January 2022 |
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Fiscal Management walks you through all those critical and often confusing budgeting questions around your 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program.
The Virtual Edge shares many great lessons learned about using technology to your advantage in 21st CCLC programs.
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As you begin the new calendar year, hopefully you are renewed, refreshed and ready to resume programming with flare. Set your sights high for 2022 and consider the royal treatment for your program: part elegance (intentional design), part ceremony (celebrate achievement) and part duty (serving the whole child). In this issue:
Finally, this month’s Voices From the Field features a Smithsonian Science Education Center curriculum developer who talks about how your program can incorporate lessons in sustainable communities.
NEW THIS MONTH: See The Y4Y Insider Family Resources column below.
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Gathering STEAM
Powering Your STEM/STEAM Initiatives
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Build staff and family support for science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics (STEAM) and social emotional learning (SEL) by identifying evidence-based approaches and family engagement resources with this 60-minute on-demand course. Integrating these areas together provides educators with the perfect opportunity to introduce a new way of instruction. Engaging with the course will require creating a free account if you don’t have one already. This presentation is supported by a Cooperative Agreement between Healthier Generation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NU1ADP003092). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.
Sign Up for Artemis I STEM Learning Pathway
Early next year, the Artemis I mission will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft thousands of miles beyond the Moon — farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown. Share the excitement of Artemis with your STEM learners! Leading up to launch, NASA’s Artemis I STEM Learning Pathway will provide weekly newsletters filled with STEM resources and ready-to-use content. Each week’s resources can be used individually or in combination to create a lesson plan tied to the learning series weekly theme. Register now and select the Artemis I STEM Learning Pathway add-on option.
Top New STEM Resources
In 2021, the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California added nearly 80 new STEM engagement resources to the online catalog of lessons, activities, articles and videos for educators, students and families. The resources feature NASA’ s latest missions exploring Earth, the Moon, Mars, asteroids, the solar system and the universe beyond. Explore the 10 most-visited new resources of the year.
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Archived Webinars
Please note: A certificate of participation is available only to those who participate in the live events. Certificates will not be issued to those who view the recordings.
Are you on the hunt for free resources to improve your 21st CCLC program? Have you ever wondered how You for Youth (Y4Y) can help you achieve your program goals? Catch this archived session to delve into all things Y4Y — the online professional learning and technical assistance portal designed specifically for 21st CCLC programs. Whether you’re a brand-new member of your program’s frontline staff, all the way up to a seasoned 21st CCLC leader staying on top of the latest resources, you’ll learn how to make the most of Y4Y resources for things like program planning, activity implementation, assessment and more!
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Family Resources
Family engagement is a legislated component of 21st CCLC programs. Y4Y wants to help you build your library of national resources to better serve your families. Watch here for links each month.
For Families Impacted by Weather Disasters: Help for Individuals and Households
FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program (IHP) provides financial and direct services to eligible individuals and households affected by a disaster who have uninsured or underinsured necessary expenses and serious needs.
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Tech Tip
Every week, Y4Y updates the homepage to keep you up to date on new course releases and other news items. Set yourself a reminder for Friday mornings to see what’s new between issues of The Y4Y Insider.
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State Coordinators Corner
Post of the Month
Are you looking to share new Y4Y content with your state’s grantees? Feel free to share the below Post of the Month on your social media accounts:
The 21st CCLC professional development team at You for Youth (Y4Y) has released TWO new courses: Fiscal Management and The Virtual Edge. Earn a certificate and dig deep on budget and maximizing technology.
Are You Updating Your RFP?
Many states are reviewing their 21st CCLC request for proposal (RFP) documents for publication this spring. Y4Y recognizes that the application process can be daunting for many deserving programs. Consider including links to Y4Y’s latest course on fiscal management in your document. You can direct applicants to an engaging way to better understand this federal funding stream, and how best to craft a successful application. The course implementation strategies seek to train learners to
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Describe the regulations and requirements associated with a 21st CCLC program budget.
- Follow cost principles that need to be applied when managing a budget.
- Develop a program budget.
- Monitor and control a program budget.
The fiscal management course is designed with program planners and leadership in mind. The earlier in the program planning stage they can access training, the more effectively they’ll
- Take charge of oversight.
- Set a budget (and be specific about it!).
- Understand other operating expenses.
- Break down supply challenges.
- Grasp contractual expenses such as evaluator, vendors, partners or busing.
- Anticipate capital outlay for larger-ticket items.
- Understand indirect costs.
- Reconcile a budget.
- Report on and amend costs and budget.
- Close out a budget.
- Sustain a program.
Finally, if your office is able to set aside time for RFP authors to engage in the new Y4Y course, more shared language can be incorporated in your application document. As grants are awarded, sites electing to take advantage of Y4Y’s free professional development resources will already be acquainted with this common resource!
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Voices From the Field
The Smithsonian, Sustainable Communities and Your 21st CCLC Program
In conversation with Heidi Gibson, science curriculum developer for the Smithsonian Science Education Center, Y4Y recently came to discover how students in 21st CCLC programs can benefit from free, high-quality, global science guides while learning to make their world a better place.
Y4Y: Ms. Gibson, Y4Y was intrigued by the release this past fall of your Sustainable Communities! research guide, designed for students ages 8 to 17. I know this is just one in a specific series of science guides. Can you start by sharing a little about that series?
HG: Absolutely! You might be familiar with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. Basically, these are the goals that the countries in the United Nations decided were most important to address between 2015 and 2030. I sometimes refer to them as the world’s strategic plan. These are big, lofty goals — like no poverty and affordable, clean energy — goals that will really impact the kind of future we will have. These goals are both hugely important and highlight some of the most challenging problems we face globally. Making progress towards these goals requires all of us — including young people — to be actively engaged.
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Heidi Gibson works at the Smithsonian Science Education Center and led the development of the Sustainable Communities! guide. She has a background in science, international affairs and education, and authored the book From Ideas to Action: Transforming Learning to Inspire Action on Critical Global Issues.
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Feb. 2 is Groundhog Day. Check out this fun STEM activity for young students: Bear’s Shadow.
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Feb. 6 marks 70 years since the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign of the United Kingdom. Take this opportunity to understand the present-day Commonwealth of 54 countries and why they still recognize the Queen as Sovereign.
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Feb. 13 is Get a Different Name Day. Be sure to have nametags ready to keep track of everyone’s choice!
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Feb. 20 is the 60th anniversary of astronaut John Glenn’s first American manned orbit of the earth. Read about this historic journey, and consider how space exploration has evolved since then.
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A powerful Middle Eastern voice for education, and specifically the education of girls, is that of Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan. She has been instrumental in opening higher learning opportunities to citizens who have grown up in government-funded orphanages:
“If you educate a woman, you educate a family. If you educate a girl, you educate the future.”
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Topical Toolkit
Topical toolkits cut across Y4Y courses to provide carefully selected tools on a given topic. This curated toolkit will help your 21st CCLC appreciate the evidential basis for each of these 21st CCLC initiatives and areas of focus.
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Virtual learning, in one form or another, is here to stay. Download Y4Y’s new Virtual Edge Planning Checklist and get started with using technology to your program’s advantage!
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Disclaimer: This newsletter may contain links to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to particular items is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, donation solicitations or products or services offered, on these outside sites, nor any organizations sponsoring the sites, whether financially or by website hosting.
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