Cambridge OST Coalition news & updates
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Note: To increase accessibility, we are using alt-text & descriptive captions.
There is an article in the resources section if you want to learn more.
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Image of a tree with pink blossoms near a path next to the Charles River. |
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Highlights & Updates
February 2024 OST Coalition Meeting
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Image: OST Coalition Slide deck cover image of one polar bear standing on an a sheet of floating ice, February 2024
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The OST community leaders who attended the Coalition Meeting at the The Foundry in February were able to: connect with peers, meet the consultants selected to facilitate the OST Expansion Study, and take a deep dive into the staff recruitment and retention dilemma. To review the slides, click here.
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Image: OST Coalition member panelists from left to right Darrin Korte, Erin Muirhead McCarty, Michelle Farnum, February 2024 |
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We are appreciative to Darrin Korte, Erin Muirhead McCarty, and Michelle Farnum, OST Coalition members, who agreed to be panelists at the February 28th OST Coalition meeting. We regret that we didn't record the panel. It was fantastic!!
The panelists from DHSP and Non-Profit Organizations shared stories and other information with their peers about OST staff recruitment and retention strategies including salary, wages, benefits, hiring practices, what they are learning from turnover, the importance of program culture and career pathways.
After the panel, the audience of 40 OST leaders spent time at tables sharing reflections on what they heard from the panel and sharing stories and information from their own experiences with recruitment and retention at their programs. Table Talk notes can be found here on slides 16-23.
This meeting was an important source of information, guiding a focus on the staffing challenges we are having in our field, as we embark on a study to understand possibilities and barriers to expansion of OST in our community.
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Update about CPS Schedule Changes |
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Image of a smiling cartoon figure with a clock face standing on text which read More Minutes. The smiling clock face cartoon is pointing to a text bubble which reads plus 30 minutes. |
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During the February OST Coalition Meeting, we posted a live poll with the following question: Did you know that CPS will be lengthening its School Day in September 2024 (for grades K-8)?
From OST Leaders' responses, it was good to learn that many people had heard about the upcoming changes. However, multiple folks hadn’t and many wanted more details. Therefore, we held a Q&A session, and it became apparent that what people asked and knew about were often contingent on the school buildings they were most connected to and/or whether they had strong relationships with school-based colleagues. Either way, the session reinforced that it’s going to be crucial that we continue to talk and plan about next school year’s changes to the schedule for all schools serving Kindergartners - 8th graders (no changes to high school schedules next year).
There was also some energy about how OST needs to continue to be centered in order to better understand what the school schedule changes will mean for our students, staff and programs as well as to shine light on the impacts, challenges and opportunities. AFCOST will deliver our ongoing feedback and input to CPS and the CEA.
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As we reminded everyone at the meeting when we showed this image of the family of polar bears pictured below, and unlike the lonely polar bear (pictured above), we are all in this together.
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Image of a mother polar bear walking along the snow with 2 polar bear cubs. |
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OST Expansion Project Update |
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Since we introduced the Expansion Project Consultants at the February OST Coalition meeting we have begun working with Kara Bixby (Withinsight Group) and Trish Dao-Tran (Resonance Data Collective). They met with the Expansion Project Steering Committee in March (meeting every other month) and developed a road map for the work ahead.
Khari Milner, Susan Richards, Mercedes Soto, Agenda for Children OST Team Members, and Michelle Farnum, DHSP's Assistant Director of Children, Youth, and Families are serving as a core team doing weekly check-ins with Kara Bixby and Trish Dao-Tran as the project moves forward.
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Invitations went out and more than 30 Cambridge Out of School Time leaders and Cambridge Public School leaders have agreed to serve as members of the Advisory Group. The first meeting will be held on May 8th (meeting every other month). Thank you to everyone who volunteered, accepted our invitation and made the commitment to participate on the Expansion Project Advisory Committee!
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Image of a table titled Project Governance which describes the role of the Steering Committee, Advisory group, Active Participants, and Involved community. |
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Universal After School Presentation at May 1st meeting of the
CITY COUNCIL HUMAN SERVICES & VETERANS COMMITTEE
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The City Council Human Service and Veterans Committee, chaired by Ayesha Wilson, held a public hearing on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 from 3:00p.m.-5:00p.m. to discuss the progress being made to bring universal afterschool to Cambridge.
Lead presenter, Michelle Farnum, DHSP's Assistant Director of Children, Youth, and Families, reported on progress. Committee Members present included: Ayesha Wilson, Sumbul Siddiqui, Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, Patty Nolan, and Marc McGovern. Committee meetings are not recorded. Click here to view the slide presentation. |
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Save the Date
Cambridge OST Coalition Meeting
June 18, 2024
9am Coffee & Networking
9:30am-12noon
OST Coalition Planning Sessions
May 21st 10-11am or 2-3pm
Look for calendar invite with Zoom information closer to the date!
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Image of OST Coalition 2023-24 Calendar Activities and Dates. |
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Making Sense of System-wide OST Data |
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Image of a table titled Student Outcomes which shows that the rate of Chronic Absenteeism is much lower in students currently participating in at least one after school activity. |
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OST and CPS data-responsible folks continue to come together at OST Data Working Group meetings to explore and make meaning of OST related data to better tell the story of the collective impact of our work with children, youth, and families in Cambridge.
Our March 2024 OST Data Working Group focused on a topic that we ran out of time to cover at the most recent February OST Coalition Meeting: OST Participation Data & Possible Impacts on Youth Development and Outcomes. One of the more interesting and compelling set of data points that we were able to dive into, thanks in major part to all programs that have been uploading their enrollment data into the Community Partners Portal, were related to CPS students’ chronic school absenteeism rates across different subgroups, and based on their participation in OST programs.
The emerging trends are pushing us to learn more about how OST programs continue to support students’ success both in and out of school as well as encouraging our efforts to push for more equitable access to OST programs for students and families who need them most.
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Image of a graphic representation of OST Staff Engagement in AFCOST PD Opportunities from July through December 2023, compared with Staff Engagement from July 2022-June 2023. |
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For the first time ever, AFCOST has produced Mid-Year Reports of staff engagement in professional opportunities that went out to many programs in April. AFCOST has historically only sent reports at the end of each year. This year, we added the Mid-year Report to support more real time program planning and engagement efforts. If you didn’t receive one and want a Mid-year report, please email susan@agendaforchildrenost.org and we will get it out to you.
As the Spring rolls on, AFCOST is offering a variety professional development opportunities including two new OST Learning Institute intermediate training series, ongoing Communities of Practice for four staff levels, monthly Network meetings across the K-12 continuum, and a new cohort of programs engaging with the Quality Improvement System!
Please recommend to your staff, who are not yet engaged or less engaged with AFCOST, to consider getting better connected. We are always interested in meeting and supporting more OST professionals. Agenda for Children OST team members are available to meet and support program level professional development planning efforts, so reach out and schedule time with us.
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Welcome to Our New
Elementary School OST Network (ESON) Coordinator
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We are excited to welcome Greg Green to the Agenda for Children OST Team. He is well known to the Cambridge OST community, and has extensive experience working in Cambridge with all ages from preschoolers to teens. More specifically, he has worked for more than 19 years within the Cambridge Department of Human Services across various Youth Divisions including working at all of the Youth Centers as a youth worker, as a one-on-one Inclusion Specialist and as a teacher at the King Afterschool Program.
For the past nine years, Greg has served as the Pre-Teen/Middle School Program Director at the Russell Youth Center where he effectively supported and developed his staff, as well as countless young people. He also designed and facilitated enriching programming experiences and excelled at building meaningful relationships with parents, caregivers, school-based personnel and a wide range of other partners. Greg has also been a long time participant across numerous AFCOST programs, and has contributed to our OST community as a trainer, facilitator and developer of tools, resources and curriculum. He is the proud dad of 2 beautiful pre-schoolers. greg@agendaforchildrenost.org
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Save the Date
Cambridge OST Coalition Meeting
June 18, 2024
9am Coffee & Networking
9:30am-12noon
OST Coalition Planning Meetings Sessions
May 21st at 10-11am or 2-3pm
Look for calendar invite with Zoom information closer to the date!
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Agenda for Children OST
Co-Directors
Susan Richards (Susan@agendaforchildrenost.org) Khari Milner (Khari@agendaforchildrenost.org)
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