Crisis in the Afterschool Workforce
A Conversation with Legislators and Program Providers
On August 10, 2022, ACT Now hosted an event titled Crisis in the Afterschool Workforce: A Conversation with Legislators and Program Providers. During this event, we highlighted survey data, collected during spring 2022 to highlight the exacerbated staff shortage and the importance of supporting out-of-school time (OST) professionals.
We also shared recommendations and hosted a panel discussion in which State Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Dana Kelly (Illinois Department of Human Services), Jeff Aranowski (Illinois State Board of Education), Teresa Dothard-Campbell (Glenview Middle School Lights ON for Learning), Maricela Bautista (Brighton Park Neighborhood Council) and Michael Holmes (Black Community Provider Network) advocated for the increase in funding and other holistic services for those working in the OST field.
- To watch the recording of our virtual discussion of our research and hear from click here. The password is: ACTNow4All!
- To read the one-pager with our data and recommendations, click here
- To access ACT Now’s PowerPoint Slide Deck, click here
- To read Chalkbeat Chicago’s article on the event, click here
- To watch Fox 32’s coverage of the event, click here
Additional Resources
Preparing Students for the Workforce Earlier Works!
EducationWeek published an article on how programs can prepare students as early as 1st grade and how these activities do not need to only involve occupation-specific training.
Student Success Coaches Playbook
City Year has released a Student Success Coaches Playbook! This guide will help youth services programs design and implement a student success coach program.
Oregon AI Chatbot Helps Students Explore Careers
The state of Oregon has worked to expand career-oriented education programs for students. One of these strategies includes Sassy, an AI chatbot. EducationWeek wrote an article on how this technology is working.
