Summer Shakedown Part 1: Quality Improvements for Youth Programs

Raising the Bar – Together

Ensuring high quality programs for youth is being addressed by the Mary Black Foundation and the newly formed Out-Of-School-Time-Collaborative. - photo courtesy of Mary Black Foundation

“Summer Shakedown” is an effort of the Mary Black Foundation to expand access to quality summer programs. In its third year, a quality bar that had been put in place with partners in the Foundation’s “Connect” adolescent health initiative has risen– with many hands joining the effort.  This is one more sign that Spartanburg County is willing to do whatever it takes to nurture the success of its youth.

Shakedown participants, providers of summer programs designed for youth, must now be formally trained through USC Upstate’s Child Protection Training Center before being eligible for the Shakedown website listing, free marketing support, and scholarship funds from a pool of over $16,000 made available by the Mary Black Foundation’s Connect initiative, funded by the Office of Adolescent Health. 

“We are looking for organizations and programs that say “Yes, I want to be trauma informed,” and “Yes, I want to participate in the training,” explained Savannah Ray, Director of Education and Outreach for the Spartanburg Academic Movement.

“The training offered by the Child Protection Training Center builds the responsiveness providers need address situations they may never have known existed, such as the social impact of adverse childhood experiences (also known as ACES).  By requiring this to be a part of the process for inclusion in the Summer Shakedown, we are transforming the ways systems across our County are engaged in serving youth,” added Ray.

Of the 40 plus attendees at an informational meeting held at the Spartanburg County Headquarters Library in February, some who would be first-time Shakedown participants, none batted an eye at the training requirement. In fact, before leaving the meeting, more than 30 had committed to participate. ”Setting this high standard for those providing services to youth is essential to improving outcomes for them,” explained Ray.

Out-of-School-Time Collaborative

Positive youth engagement is an essential support for Spartanburg County’s youth. - photo, Mary Black Foundation

“This training initiative is also part of a broader effort to strengthen systems that support youth development year-round,” Ray explained during the meeting, announcing that an Out-of-School-Time Collaborative has been launched recently by the Mary Black Foundation and SAM to create the infrastructure needed to improve access to and quality measures programs serving youth during the more than 5000 hours of “free time” they  have away from school each year, including summer programs.

Ray’s personal journey served as an example for the value of out-of-school-time activities. Being able to list cheerleading on her resume had been a key to getting an early professional internship.  “What that activity said I could do made an impact and broadened the scope of the interview.”

“Education comes in many forms.  It is our responsibility, as a community, to ensure that our youth have access to quality programs that can meet their needs,” she added.

Many summer program providers also serve youth year-round, merging the interests of the new collaborative, the Shakedown, and Connect.

Connect: Meeting the needs of older youth

“Our youth are asking for opportunities to explore, to do things they’d never done before,” explained Polly Edwards-Padgett, Adolescent Health Program Director for the Mary Black Foundation.

Connect develops community initiatives directly from its youth listening campaigns and Community Advisory Board. Connect partners share a commitment to increasing support to “prevent disparities among teens and young adults by increasing access to services and supports that result in holistically healthier individuals.”

 “Connect does not provide services to youth. Our job is to ensure youth serving agencies have the capacity and resources needed to be successful in improving youth outcomes and youth have the services, supports and opportunities needed to thrive,” explained Padgett.   

Meeting “adolescent friendly” guidelines is a best practice standard for Connect partners. Edwards-Padgett extends screening further, directly asking potential partners, “Are you trauma informed?” before listing any on the Connect website or referral system. 

Ensuring that organizations offering programs to youth have the knowledge to ensure quality is not just about offering funding or asking pointed questions.  It’s about ensuring that training, support materials and technical assistance are available to those wishing to be a part of the Connect network. There is even a time-window within which a partner agency must meet training qualifications. The standard for Connect inclusion has always been high.

Funding, program quality, and organizational capacity can be barriers to connecting youth to positively impactful experiences. Through Connect, the Mary Black Foundation is removing those barriers while also closing the opportunity gap for families who cannot afford out-of-school-time programs that support learning.

In the previous two years of “Shakedown,” nearly 200 scholarships were offered. “We are expecting to provide around 100 scholarships to the programs committed to meeting these high standards for this summer,” said Edwards-Padgett. Previous Shakedown participants have tapped into a wide array of interest areas from STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Music) themes to sports, outdoor/nature, academic, and leadership development and have summer activity sites throughout the county.  

Year 3 Changes

 “For this third year of the Shakedown, we are looking for organizations and programs that say “Yes, I want to be trauma informed,” and “Yes, I want to participate in the training,” explained Ray.

Another first for the 2019 “Summer Shakedown” is a literacy building effort sponsored by the Spartanburg County Library.  Susan Myers, Director of Teen Services, shared that all youth participating in activities supported through the “Shakedown” will receive a free book.

“We know that having a personal library is important for encouraging teens to read – to maintain and build their literacy skills through books written with their unique interests in mind.  We are thrilled to be partnering with this effort to add personal literacy to summer programs committed to the highest level of quality for the youth they serve,” Myers said.

Funding Commitment

Covering the cost of training is part of the Mary Black Foundation’s service to community agencies willing to raise the quality bar for their programs.  On Friday, April 26, 2019, those registered will cover Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s), Recognizing Signs of Abuse, Handling Disclosures, Mandated Reporting, Building Resiliency, and more. A second training date, Wednesday, May 8, 2019 has been added to accommodate additional participants.

Improved quality through free training, scholarships to increase access, and adding literacy benefits for summer programs are building Spartanburg county through our youth. 

“This is another win-win for Spartanburg,” said Edwards-Padgett.

To learn more about partnering with Connect for the Summer Shakedown email Savannah Ray sray@learnwithsam.org or Meghan Smith msmith@learnwithsam.org or call 864-573-5804.



Building Spartanburg Through Its Youngest Residents

For 18 months, a group of Spartanburg/Upstate early childhood experts have been diving into efforts to deepen the community impact of their combined decades of knowledge and best practices.

Start small and build community. These are two of the lessons we’ve learned through Spartanburg Academic Movement’s participation in the Prenatal to Age 3 Impact and Improvement Network through StriveTogether and NICHQ. Read what else we’ve learned as we work toward ensuring that every child in our community has the best possible start to school and life.

The StriveTogether national network featured this BLOGPOST written by the team about their efforts.

FREE Professional Development offered to Spartanburg County Teachers

Local Philanthropy Supports SAM Initiative to Instill CI Practice in Schools

The practices of Continuous Improvement (CI) Science have long been effectively applied in corporate sectors. The Spartanburg Academic Movement (SAM) is teaming with Spartanburg’s school districts to apply these practices in the classroom.

CI 101 guides teachers through standards-based goal setting with data visualization and analysis to track student achievement, modify teaching and learning strategies, and bring control of success into the hand of students.

Four, single-day, free educator workshops, being held in March and April:

·         Thursday, March 14:  9 AM – 4PM, Mary Black Foundation Conference Center

·         Wednesday, March 27:  9 AM – 4PM, Mary Black Foundation Conference Center

·         Wednesday, April 10:  9 AM – 4PM, Mary Black Foundation Conference Center

·         Wednesday, April 24:  9 AM – 4PM, Mary Black Foundation Conference Center

Registration is now open for these workshops via this REGISTRATION LINK.

All seven Superintendents of Spartanburg County school districts have authorized this training to count toward re-certification hours.

To date, about 50 educators have been trained and Districts 6 and 7 have hired Continuous Improvement coaches to further support the use of these strategies. Just a few months after training, one veteran Spartanburg County teacher reported:  

 “I have become more intentional about my teaching and my students have paid more attention to what they are learning and how well they are doing.”

Another Spartanburg County teacher said:

 “If someone had been able to share this data use with me as a first-year  teacher, I would have been in a much better place.”

 “Use of CI practice is not another new program adopted one year and falling out of favor two years later.  It is a shift in perspectives and practices that transcends grade level, content area, and school locations to empower teachers, schools, and students to make the progress that has been standing just beyond reach for too many, for far too long,” explains Mendy Mossbrook, director of SAM’s CI Institute.

 Consider the parent who, after asking the age-old question, “what did you learn in school today,” hears “subtraction with regrouping” rather than “stuff” or “math.”  “Show me” becomes a real possibility for positive parent-child connection.  

 Connecting standards-based dialog to teaching, learning, goal-setting and classroom communication are strategies taught in the upcoming educator workshops. Teachers are reporting back to CI coaches:

 “The kids are becoming so conversant about what they are doing!”

“My class culture is changing, becoming a community of learners encouraging each other.”

The earliest CI for the classroom training had its beginnings in “The Four Schools Project,” a SAM initiative that launched in the fall of 2017 to identify strategies to improve outcomes for children in the four highest poverty schools in the county.  The effort, involving schools in Districts 6 and 7, has identified CI in the classroom as a key strategy to address multiple factors impacting student success. 

“The beauty of this training is that teachers know this and do so much of it instinctively.  We are providing them a framework that helps their results become obvious and stay at the forefront of everything that happens in the classroom,” explained Cheryl Broadnax, Senior Director of District Improvement with StriveTogether.

During her previous tenure with Cincinnati Public Schools as Assistant Superintendent, Broadnax led the effort to embed CI practice across that district, resulting in in the district raising its achievement rating to the highest available in Ohio. Broadnax has worked with SAM and the Wardlaw Institute’s director, Mendy Mossbrook to develop educator workshops that provide teachers high impact training in single-day sessions.

For additional information contact Mendy Mossbrook at mmossbrook@learnwithsam.org or call

864-573-5804 to register for a workshop: REGISTRATION LINK