Just like us, there are staff who want the certificate and most will log the seat time if it’s required. But, if we’re truly trying to find ways to motivate participation—and learning—extrinsic consequences and rewards are not the answer.

As you prepare to enter a new season of programming, you can lead the program everyone wants to be part of. You can lead the program where staff and students flourish. To do it, you start with yourself.

Designing online learning is not easy but it’s also not hard. Check out these clear tips on how to get started for yourself. AND take our quiz to find out your own Online PD SuperPower!

When considering how to design staff development for this summer and next fall, it’s important to bring together both the “knowing about” and the “knowing how to” for a broader staff experience.

You’ve been planning the logistics, posting job descriptions, maybe interviewing potential staff in preparation for your programming this summer. But once these big pieces are in place, how will you prepare staff to meet the needs of young people this summer?

You’ve made it to the top of the mountain this year. Now as you prepare to offer in-person youth programming post-pandemic, don’t miss the opportunities to document what you’ve learned and prepare to initiate better programming.

Virtual learning and facilitation is not going away. Now is a good time to reset and recalibrate your efforts to take the long view. By making a few shifts, you’ll be able to lighten your load, better care for yourself and facilitate better learning for your participants.

2020 has been one of the most traumatic years during our lifetimes. And we know that the immediate and long-term effects on our children and youth could become dire—especially when the 2020 anxieties are coupled with already-existing trauma or challenges. When facilitating youth programming remotely, try these 5 trauma-informed practices to support your participants.

Facilitating good virtual meetings and workshops takes planning and practice. Here are the essential tips, tried and true structures, routines and techniques that make virtual meetings effective and engaging—in a BINGO board :)

In the long list of lessons the pandemic has taught us, one is: No matter how much you prepare, you may never actually be ready. And, even though we may have prepared, we still have to be able to abandon our plans and readjust to a completely different context at the drop of a hat. Our team is excited to announce the launch of our new virtual learning platform, LEARN>Without Limits.

As schools and programs embark on the varied Fall scenarios, I’ve fallen in step with other colleagues saying, “If we just had a little more information, we could at least make a plan.” In this post, we think about how navigating these unsettling times is like a dance.

Our hiring processes have to account for a number of different factors. Since many of us who have supervised OST programs received little or no training in effective staff recruitment, we wanted to share a few practices and principles that we’ve found to be effective for hiring staff who have the necessary skills and mindset for meeting the needs of the young people and families we serve.