101 Marketing Ideas for Programs

From getting the right message to deciding who the messenger will be, marketing can be a challenge. That's why the California School-Age Consortium has produced 101 marketing ideas for afterschool and school-age care programs. It includes tips for carrying out your own communications plan; suggestions for creating a website, brochure, or newsletter; ideas for how to get parents more invested in your program; and thoughts on how to make your program stand out in the crowd.

Creating a Vision for Afterschool Partners

This tool is intended to help the growing number of new afterschool partnerships create a shared vision for their work. It contains information to educate partners on what a vision statement is and the purpose it serves; provides two alternative techniques for creating a vision; and includes a variety of considerations for planning teams as they finalize a vision statement.

Get Free On-site Training for Your Staff!

CalSAC Training is the field's best-kept secret: high-quality training, delivered right to your site...at no cost to your program!

Post Your Job Openings Now!

Serious job-seekers in the field visit CalSAC's website -- the only free job-posting service just for California afterschool and school-age care programs.

Staff Orientation and Development -- What's Your Plan?

A staff development, training, and orientation plan can help your program retain staff, improve quality, and reach outcomes for kids. This article provides a variety of tangible ideas to help you plan.

Competency Observation Assessment Tool

This assessment tool accompanies the 10 competencies for front-line youth workers adopted by members of the National Collaboration for Youth. The tool can be used by front-line youth workers, peers, mentors and coaches to provide examples of what each competency looks like and by supervisors to assess the level to which a youth worker has developed the competencies needed to work effectively with youth.

Free Youth Fitness Curriculum for Educators

The Operation FitKids™ Curriculum is designed for educators looking to integrate health and fitness into classroom learning. This seven-lesson module was developed to teach the extreme dangers of being overweight and the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle.

New Math Website for Afterschool Activities

A new website created by many our San Diego CalSAC partners offers fun math games and more. 

10 Steps to Better Management

Need help motivating staff or keeping your workforce on track? Our 10 steps to better management provide helpful strategies and benefits that keep employees on your side.

6 Tips for Superior Supervising

Managing staff in an afterschool environment can be as easy as 1-2-3, with these simmple rules.

Bringing Out the Best in Your Staff

Here are some basic strategies to bring out the best in your people!

Create an Outreach Campaign

Here are some ideas to help you create a quality program and outreach campaign

Guidelines for Effective Staff-Child Relationships

Use these guidelines to orient program administrators and staff members and help them to assess whether their behavior meets nationally recognized quality standards

Promoting Professionalism in your Staff

In a field where staff turnover is high and training budgets slim, personnel issues represent a major challenge for programs. But ignoring human resources can threaten a program’s overall success.

Recipe for a Sustainable Program

A study was conducted by the National Afterschool and Community Learning Network(Peterson & Spitz, 2003) to examine sustainability issues in-depth

Including Children with Special Needs in 5 Simple Steps

An estimated 600,000 school-age kids in California live with disabilities. Many participate and thrive in afterschool programs that work intentionally to be inclusive. Make your program one of them in five steps

Middle School Youth: Another World

Older kids have lots of options when school lets out, but not all alternatives are positive. Convincing them to spend time at your program requires a special approach

Behavior Guidance: Creating an Integrated Policy

The challenge for programs is to create safe, caring environments in which kids can understand their mistakes and learn from their behaviors. Developing a clear, concise Behavior Guidance Policy is one way you can set guidelines and reinforce positive behavior in your program

Settling Employee Conflicts, a 5 Step Approach

Conflicts are all too common among employees. As a program manager or supervisor, your challenge is to help staff work together, despite varying temperaments, teaching methods and personal styles. By following our 5-step approach, you can help employees to resolve their conflicts

Preventing Behavior Challenges Before They Start

If you’ve got behavior programs, you may be experiencing the symptoms of something larger

Interview with the Funder

Corporate giving has fallen on hard times in California, with many corporations ending or greatly reducing giving programs. We recently conducted an interview with one company that is still giving

Math Curriculum for Middle Schoolers

The Math Explorer: Games and Activities for Middle School Youth Groups, a new curriculum developed by the Exploratorium helps to bridge this divide by providing a series of hands-on math activities that are truly fun and engaging

Character Building Curriculum

While politicians focus on afterschool programs as a place for students to improve academically, kids want to spend afterschool time practicing what they love

Ground Rules to Get Kids Active

In a state where one in four children is overweight and even more are physically unfit, the pressure to increase activity is on. Exercise plays a role in keeping kids healthy now and in upping the odds of lifelong fitness. It’s also highly correlated with academic success

7 Tips for Program Evaluation

Gearing Your Program to All Kids

ine out of 10 afterschool programs serve children of diverse ethnic and language backgrounds, and six in 10 serve kids with disabilities. We’ve got the diversity, but what about inclusion? Experts recommend several strategies for making the most of kids’ differences and creating real community after school.

Partnering for Success: Schools and Communities on Your Side

recognizing partnerships can improve afterschool programs, more communities are embarking on efforts to share resources, prevent duplicating services, and realize a common vision for kids

How to Conduct a Program Evaluation

While program evaluation might sound intimidating, it can be incredibly helpful to an organization that wants to improve or advocate better

Free Online Resource Offers CEUs

A new online tutorial for professionals in afterschool programs and other youth services provides free staff instruction on bullying issues and preventing aggression. The instruction offers continuing education units and contact hours. 

Bullies and their Victims: What to Do

There's nothing new about bullies. Most people can remember some experience with a bully while growing up. Unfortunately, bullies still cause psychological and physical damage to other kids.

Chess: The Right Moves

One of the biggest after-school success stories – though at first blush an unlikely candidate to get kids’ juices flowing – is chess. Stimulating critical thinking and other valuable skills, while also proving highly engaging to students, chess offers great potential as an educational reform vehicle.

Older Workers in Afterschool Programs

With a grant from the Charles Stuart Mott Foundation, over the past year Civic Ventures has been studying the role of older volunteers in after-school programs.

Teen Workers in Afterschool

Recent research by the University of California Cooperative Extension shows that involving teenagers as program leaders can be an effective way to add quality without increasing costs.

Why It's So Important to Teach Kids About Diversity

When the school bell rings this fall, millions of kids will head back to school, bringing together a rich variety of cultures, races and religions. If we believe recent research, the majority of the kids will get along.

Tackling the Issue of Workload: It's About Time!

Like the proverbial “elephant in the room,” overwork is the troubling workplace reality that everyone knows is there, but no one dares mention because they don’t know how to deal with it.

How to be an Afterschool Advocate

The recent experience of afterschool professional Len Heid illustrates why it’s a good idea for afterschool and child care professionals to make their case to government.

How Child Care Centers Hold on to Teachers, How Teachers Build Lasting Careers

Marcy Whitebook and Laura Sakai examine how child care programs and their staff subsist in a field characterized by low pay, low status, and high turnover and what the impacts of these factors are on the quality of child care provided. 

Tools to Promote Reading Fun

Get free materials to promote reading for fun and positive choices in movie viewing.