From last year’s balloons to this year’s virtual celebration, the OST Collaborative has much to celebrate!
The lights were on and people gathered in person just a year ago to celebrate the launch of the Out-of-School-Time Collaborative with a “Lights on Afterschool” event highlighting the impact so many local programs and organizations have on the lives of Spartanburg’s youth. While much has changed since releasing its blueprint for collaboration in October of 2019, the action to build support for youth-serving providers and expanding access for youth has provided more than just the Birthday Party theme for last week’s virtual meeting of Collaborative partners.
In the last year, OST Partnership Agreement and membership standards were developed and adopted, multiple trainings held, and partner organizations banded together to weather the coronavirus storm: pivoting programs to virtual platforms and responding with innovative new ways to keep youth engaged.
In the last year, partners joined in training to:
“What has been most helpful about the OST Collaborative is the consistency and genuine support around planning, executing, and goal-setting by the entire community partnership in the collaborative. No one person has the most input.”
Include Social-Emotional competencies and learning into their programs
increase Youth Engagement
address and advance Equity in their programs and interactions with youth
better identify endangered youth
understand and respond to Adverse Childhood Experiences ACE’s
build common language, empathy, and compassion into their programs and practices,
In the process they were guided by the following field experts: America’s Promise Alliance; Karen Pittman, The Forum for Youth Investment; Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality; Dr.Susan Thomas; Dr. Jennifer Parker, USC Upstate Child Protection Training Center, Ron Fairchild, Smarter Learning Group; Scott Neely and Davelyn Hill, Speaking Down Barriers; Polly Edwards-Padgett, CONNECT and the Mary Black Foundation, and funded in part through America’s Promise Alliance’s How Learning Happens grant.
Of the official OST Partners, those actively engaged in building capacity to meet quality standards of the collaborative:
62% are “in-process” with developing safety and emergency procedures.
62% are “in-process” for developing program measurement tools.
46% of program administrators have The Fundamentals of Youth-Serving Providers certificate Program from the Child Protection Training Center at USC Upstate.
In addition, OST Partners:
participated in two Covid-debriefing sessions, sharing successes and building solutions to the challenges faced by program providers and youth.
attended (and served as presenters) at the 3-day Adolescent Health Conference sponsored by the Mary Black Foundation and CONNECT.
distributed over $18,000 in scholarships to support youth participation in quality summer programs
created a web presence, resource repository, and private FB group to facilitate resource sharing among OST providers,
and produced 9 videos capturing student voice, expert perspectives, and program-provider guidance to support ongoing Collaborative action planning
More than 65 community organization and program leaders attended one or more OST Collaborative events since the group’s launch a year ago.
“We can all be proud of what' we’ve done, learned and accomplished and how we are poised to do even more moving forward,” said Ron Fairchild, the Smarter Learning Group consultant who has provided essential support for the Collaborative’s creation and action planning since its inception.
Taking only a brief pause to have Collaborative partners celebrate by opening the party boxes mailed to them in advance, donning their party hats, and blowing their noisemakers, last week’s participants moved right into a next-steps planning session. Discussion focused on what partners had shared during and immediately following their 2-day fall training session.
“We’re continuing to build training and engagement opportunities to respond directly to what the OST partners are asking for,” said Savannah Ray, co-leader of the OST Collaborative. Ray serves as Director of Educational Engagement and Partnerships for the Spartanburg Academic Movement.
“We already have dates for training around youth mental health, cultural competency, and ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) on the calendar for the first half of 2021, said Meghan Smith, Collaborative co-leader who works as Director of College and Career Readiness for the Spartanburg Academic Movement.
“We’ve done a great job of helping our community know what ACEs are, but how we’re ready to take this to the next step, bringing that knowledge to the practice of building safe spaces and engage through traumas that youth manage in their lives so that we’re helping them build upon their resiliency as a positive,” summarized Polly Edwards-Padgett, project director with the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare Foundation.
Bringing in young people to share their lived-experiences building lives beyond their ACEs was discussed as a topic for future meetings. Gia Quinones, a local mental health counselor and member of Alianza Spartanburg suggested training to support bilingual and immigrant youth. Identifying ways to support teen parents and reducing stress for online learners were other new topics introduced.
While adding those into the future planning, a check-in on progress toward standards set last year was shared.
“Being able to have “real” conversations around what has worked, what is working, and what we are planning to do with both success and failures going forward to bring change in the Spartanburg County community has been so helpful. ”
Fairchild encouraged all to share samples and templates they’ve used for things like emergency procedures and safety plans. using the collaborative mindset to build the capacity of each organization builds the strength of all.
“It’s about working smarter, not harder,” said Tanna Thompson of the Uplift Outreach Center.
Embedding greater youth voice and engagement was another focus. The Plan Spartanburg “On the Table” initiative, asking citizens to provide discussion group-based feedback for citywide planning, quickly gained interest. Before the meeting closed, multiple partners volunteered for leadership roles to facilitate in-person and online sessions for youth.
“The youth I work with are starting to feel left-behind right now. They’re tired of virtual meetings and want to make sure they have a say in what is happening,” shared Antiwan Tate, founder of My Brothers Keeper Alliance of South Carolina.
“The support provided to one another and hearing others talk about ways they’ve pivoted whether it be due to COVID-19 or just in general when one method is worn and something else is needed has been helpful to me and my organization. ”
Three events, one in-person and two online have already been scheduled, in addition to one that had already been planned by the United Way of the Piedmont. Ensuring that youth are having a direct voice in the direction of community planning was clearly prioritized for immediate action.
“Getting our youth-serving providers to step up so quickly to respond to the needs and opportunities before us is what this group is all about. No one could do this all themselves, but together, we make a greater impact,” said Smith.
Despite needing to be in an online format, the virtual OST Collaborative’s October meeting was a true celebration of the group’s action throughout the last year.