Newsletters

Newsletters

In this October Newsletter:

Michigan AfterSchool Collaborative Pre-Conference Workshop

Oct. 14, 2010
Best Western Sterling Heights, MI

A full-day workshop is planned for High School Providers at the MAC Pre-Conference.  The facilitator for the day is world renowned team building and active-learning expert, Dr. Jim Cain, of Teamwork & Teamplay (www.teamworkandteamplay.com).  This pre-conference will focus on recruiting, engaging and providing quality programming specifically for high school students.

Jim has been developing his ideas to meet the unique needs of older youth for over the past 30 years and is anxious to assist you in making better connections with your youth to meet their needs.  He will focus his presentation on your needs and will give you practical ways to engage older youth.  So come with your questions, ideas and dreams for your program and be prepared to actively participate in designing an engaging and quality program for your students.

Jim Cain received rave reviews when he was last here, so make sure you register today, the deadline to register has been extended to Tuesday, October 5th.

Lights On Afterschool

Registration is now open for the 11th annual Lights On Afterschool on October 21, 2010. Last year over 185 registered Lights On events were held across the state of Michigan. Last chance to register (by October 5 ) to be included in a drawing to win a Super Science Kit from Discount School Supply of NASA's Space School Musical DVD (see trailer here).  30 winners will be picked.

Check out Afterschool Alliance's Event Planning Kit, which makes it easy for you to take part, and help show the important role after-school programs play in our communities, and in our nation.

New Resources

A New Self-Assessment Tool for After-School
The Global Learning in Afterschool Self-Assessment Tool is a resource created by Asia Society’s Partnership for Global Learning, developed with the New York State Afterschool Network (NYSAN) and in collaboration with afterschool partners, to assess and improve programs’ capacity to help build the global competence of youth.

The Global Learning in Afterschool Self-Assessment Tool is meant to be used in conjunction with other quality tools to help programs focus on how to create or improve the conditions necessary for successful global learning within a high-quality program. It serves as a guide for programs that wish to bolster their program design, environment, activities, and policies to build global competence in youth. For programs that are just getting started with global learning, the tool can be used as a framework for guiding preliminary discussions and to help identify areas of high-quality global learning in out-of-school time. More established programs can use the tool to measure progress to date and plot growth over time.


Updates from Make it Stick

Help Positive Stories Shine Through When Education Gets the Spotlight
How many times have you wished for education to garner the type of public attention focused on other top issues like the economy and climate change? Well, now may be the chance. Over the next few weeks we will see the spotlight shine on the good – and bad – things happening in education through:

  • Release of the major motion picture Waiting for Superman, a movie from the same team that catapulted climate change into the national dialogue with An Inconvenient Truth
  • Lights On! Afterschool - a series of events celebrating afterschool across the country (October 21)

With the nation's attention turned to education, you can help highlight positive stories about what's working in public education by sharing your stories! Visit Facebook.com/MakeItStick and MakeItStick.org to engage in this important national conversation and showcase positive examples of organizations and individuals working across sectors to make learning stick!

Trainings and Conferences


An updated list of upcoming trainings and conferences are listed on the MASP Training and Events Calendar. A few upcoming ones to highlight:

 


Michigan AfterSchool Collaborative Conference
October 14-15, Sterling Heights, MI
The MAC Conference is a professional development event for the Michigan out-of-school time community, including teachers, on-site staff, administrators, child care providers, and parents. The deadline to register is October 5, 2010. 


The Michigan AfterSchool Association Professional Development Scholarship Fund offers scholarships for the reimbursement of approved professional development. Apply to receive an 80% reimbursement for the MAC Collaborative Conference.  Visit www.miafterschool.com


Kids Care Week: October October 17 - 23
Kids Care Week, presented by generationOn and celebrated the third week of October, recognizes the power of kids to help others in their community and the world. During the week, young people focus their compassion on a specific social issue through a service project. Kids Care Week culminates on Make a Difference Day, a national day of doing good sponsored by USA Weekend and held in partnership with HandsOn Network. During Kids Care Week 2010, October 17th to the 23rd, we are asking young people to "make your mark on the world: go the extra mile."

Funding News

State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grants
State Farm is proud to team up with Youth Service America to offer grants of up to $1,000 for youth-led service-learning initiatives is all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Eligible programs will engage youth in service-learning, an effective teaching and learning strategy that promotes student learning, academic achievement, workplace readiness, and healthy communities. State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grants encourage semester-long projects (following YSA's Semester of Service framework) that launch on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service (January 17, 2011) and culminate on Global Youth Service Day (April 15-17, 2011).

Eligibility:Teachers, service-learning coordinators and students in a public school, or staff and youth in a community-based organization working with a public school.
Deadline:Midnight, October 15, 2010


UnitedHealth HEROES
UnitedHealth HEROES is a service-learning, health literacy initiative designed to encourage young people, partnering with schools and nonprofits, to create and implement local hands-on programs to fight childhood obesity. Educators, nonprofit leaders, and students are encouraged to apply for grants of up to $1,000 to engage youth in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Youth participants raise awareness around their work by culminating their service projects on Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), April 15-17, 2011, an international day of service that occurs in all 50 states and in more than 100 countries.

Deadline:October 22, 2010

Michigan Mayoral Summit a Success!

Over fifty municipal leaders and after-school partners participated in the first Michigan Mayoral Summit on Helping Our Youth Succeed in the Workforce, held in Dearborn on September 21, 2010, prior to the Michigan Municipal League Convention. The Summit was a collaborative effort between the Michigan After-School Partnership, Michigan Municipal League, and National League of Cities Youth, Education and Families Institute and is made possible by a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

Participants heard the experiences of local leaders from Michigan who have developed opportunities and reaped the rewards from creating youth focused systems in their cities. A panel of youth from across the state shared their experiences of serving on mayoral youth boards and empowering out-of-school time opportunities. State and national resources for out-of-school time to support youth-focused systems were shared with the participants.

Mayor George Heartwell (Grand Rapids) with two of the youth that spoke on the youth panel

STEM

New MetLife STEM Issue Brief from Afterschool Alliance

This Issue Brief seeks to show the powerful potential of afterschool to promote STEM-literacy among middle school youth and highlights afterschool programs that incorporate STEM activities, giving students time to develop an interest in science and inspiring them to learn. The brief also shows how combining STEM learning with afterschool programming offers middle school students a fun, challenging, hands-on introduction to the skills they will need in high school, college and the workplace.

Middle school is a great time for kids to catch the STEM bug, so whether you have a program and want to improve your students’ STEM learning or are simply interested in learning more about this constantly growing and developing phenomenon in American education, you should check out the new brief.

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