CAN Newsletter – Celebrating Pride Month!
June 8, 2021

CAN Newsletter
Pride Month- Rainbow

Say no to hate. Stick with love. Our work in youth development needs to be centered on equity; where we create, build, and maintain emotionally and physically inclusive spaces for ALL children and youth to learn, grow, and be unapologetically themselves.  

As we celebrate Pride Month, we also continue to stand in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ community of youth and adults. We support the work to outlaw discriminatory laws and practices against LGBTQ+ Americans, of all ages. In schools and OST programs, we have the opportunity to talk with young people about LGBTQ+ people and their struggles to achieve equity and justice in all aspects of their lives. It is also a great opportunity to learn about those who have created change in our communities. 

As educators and thought-leaders, we have a shared responsibility to advocate for and create Anti-Bias and authentically diverse learning environments, where children and youth are loved, included, and embraced for the special humans they are. In doing so, we can create opportunities that empower a sense of belonging and connectedness for youth to thrive and develop into future community builders and changemakers. “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” – Dalai Lama

Below are a few resources that may offer support as you engage in this work to support all children, youth, and educators. 

 

Resources

In Community, 

The CAN Team

In This Newsletter:

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Students and Teacher in a high school theater class

Promoting Protective Factors in California’s Afterschool Programs
June 2021

This report was created by WestEd and commissioned by the California AfterSchool Network.

The report, drawing on data from the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS), examines the extent to which afterschool programs* may help foster more protective factors among its participants compared to their peers who were not program participants. 

Below are some excerpts from the report that outline the Protective Factors Framework and key findings.

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Child smiling and wearing headphones.

New Resource: Evidence Base for Afterschool and Summer

Dr. Terry K. Peterson and Dr. Deborah Lowe Vandell teamed up to highlight the evidence base that shows well-designed and well-delivered summer enrichment and comprehensive afterschool can address “learning loss,” accelerate learning and expand opportunities for student success. 

The findings are part of extensive research- and evidence-based that supports local and state leaders’ efforts to address learning loss and acceleration by investing ESSER III and other funds to expand access, as called out in the law, for “summer learning or summer enrichment” and/ or “comprehensive afterschool programs” and to improve existing opportunities in high-need neighborhoods and schools. 

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Restorative Restart: The Path Towards Reimagining and Rebuilding Schools

PACE has published a new brief entitled Restorative Restart: The Path Towards Reimagining and Rebuilding Schools, as a result of COVID-19’s impact on students of color, students from low-income families, English learners, and other marginalized children and youth. The purpose of this brief is to highlight while many want to return to normalcy, the systems that were in place were not working for these margnialized students and that the 2021-2022 school year is a perfect opportunity reimagine and rebuild equitable school systems where all students have the support and opportunities they need to thrive.

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Girls outside drawing

Summer Learning and Beyond: Opportunities for Equitable Learning Postpandemic

Spencer Foundation and LPI have published a new report entitled Summer Learning and Beyond: Opportunities for Equitable Learning Postpandemic, which points to the need for learning environments centered on strong teacher-student relationships that address students’ social and emotional learning especially in a time where students have experiences multiple forms of trauma in the past year in the forms of the pandemic and racialized violence. 

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Two students outside doing a gardening activity

The National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative

As public parks and schools continue to open across California, this summer will feel different than last. The National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative was created to collect resources in one place to include guidance on transforming outdoor spaces into outdoor learning centers, strategies for teaching and learning, and health considerations in a world still experiencing a pandemic in order to overcome some of the many existing inequities online and distance learning exacerbated for low-income families and students of color.

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Out-of-School Time Programs This Summer: Paving the Way for Children to Find Passion, Purpose & Voice

The Wallace Foundation’s new presentation, in partnership with Edge Research and Learning Heroes, entitled Out-of-School Time Programs This Summer: Paving the Way for Children to Find Passion, Purpose & Voice – Parent, Teacher & OST Provider Perceptions discovered that after a year of pandemic-induced isolation, parents’ top priorities for their children’s summer programs are addressing their social and emotional health, providing physical outdoor activities and helping them discover their passion and purpose. These findings are based off of surveys in February and March 2021 as well as interviews and focus groups conducted earlier in December to see what parents’ top priorities for summer programs would be this summer. 

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Student coming down slide

Summer School in California Will Prioritize Fun and Reconnecting Students

California school districts are offering robust summer school programs with an emphasis on fun to help reconnect students to their schools. Experts say schools won’t be able to combat learning loss until they deal with the social and emotional needs of children who have been away from their peers and teachers for more than a year and may have experienced other trauma during the pandemic.  

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Elevate California logo

Elevate Youth California Funding Opportunity
Deadline: Wednesday June 23, 1pm PST

Elevate Youth California is a statewide program supporting community leaders who are addressing substance use disorder by investing in the youth leadership development and activism of youth of color and LGBTQ+ youth.

This opportunity is part of the Prop 64 grant program managed by the Department of Health Care Services and administered by the Center at Sierra Health Foundation. This program is focused on supporting youth ages 12-26 in communities of color disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.

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Afterschool Alliance

Help Raise Awareness of Afterschool and Summer Programs’ Role During the Pandemic & Win $$!
Deadline: Sunday, June 27, 11:59 PM PDT

Your Voice Matters!

This summer will be one for the books. As states begin to lift statewide coronavirus-related restrictions and vaccinations continue to roll out, the public is hopeful for a return to normal in the near future. A recent survey of parents of school-age children found that nearly two-thirds say that they are comfortable sending their child to in-person summer activities.

Survey Opportunity

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Department of Education seal

21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) Grant Program 2021 Summer Symposium
July 20-22, 2021

The U.S. Department of Education is pleased to announce that registration for the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) Grant Program 2021 Summer Symposium is now open!

This three-day event provides State education agencies (SEAs) and their grantees with plenary sessions and workshops with successful strategies in implementing and managing all components of the program. It also offers an opportunity for the Department to provide important updates regarding the 21st CCLC program.

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Students outside using chalk

Powerful Partnerships: Schools and Afterschool and Summer Programs Together for Student Recovery and Success

In May, Afterschool Alliance hosted with help from the School Superintendents Association, ”Powerful Partnerships: Schools and Afterschool and Summer Programs Together for Student Recovery and Success”. They explore what’s possible, how to quickly form effective partnerships, and how to maximize an investment in community-based partners for student recovery.

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Two mentors and a mentee sitting around a table

Mentoring Connector

Mentoring Connector is a free service designed to help quality youth mentoring programs across the US recruit volunteer mentors. This resources allows for the programs listed in the database to be more accessible to potential mentors when they search for a volunteer opportunity near them. 

The Mentoring Connector includes new search parameters, targeting options and updated mentoring program information. Each year, their collective call-to-action through national initiatives results in more than 60,000 searches in the system.

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Check Out Our Other Newsletters!

Access the CAN newsletter archives to view past newsletters today! You may be interested in some of our other newsletters as well:

CAN Health and Wellness Newsletters

  • Get informed on the connections between afterschool and Whole Child Health and Wellness.
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CAN STEAM Newsletters​

  • Get informed about the Million Girl Moonshot project and access other STEAM resources.
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CAN Policy Newsletter

  • Get informed about policy-related content, including national, state, and local updates, that supports our Expanded Learning programs.
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