Professionalizing the After School Workforce: Dynamic Interactive Training

Abstract Increasing enrollment and greater reliance on after school programsASPsfor social emotional learningSELcoincides with research demonstrating that participation in high quality ASPs contribute meaningfully to positive youth development and mental healthespecially for youth living in communities of concentrated urban povertyThese benefits rely on high quality experiences in a supportive environment with structured youthadult interactions and well organized opportunities for engagementHoweverorganizational and workforce variability across ASPs underscores the myriad challenges associated with consistenthigh qualityand sustained SEL programming in ASPsThe traditional model for professional developmentPDand implementation of SEL curriculum in schools does not transfer to the after school settingHencewe propose a technology based innovation for ASP provider training in SEL programming that harnesses strengthsacknowledges limitationsand leverages opportunities inherent to diverse and complex ASPsTo our knowledgethe proposed product will be the first technology product that provides self paced interactive instruction and practice to build workforce skills necessary for after school providers to create and capitalize on teachable moments during after school routines and recreation to meet the socialemotionaland behavioral needs of enrolled youthThismonth SBIR Phase I project will accomplish three specific aimsdevelop a fully functioning software prototypeconduct prototype usability and feasibility testing with frontline ASP youth care workersandconduct prototype testing with organizational stakeholdersThe proposed SBIR project will directly address the need for innovative costand time efficient solutions to engage after school frontline providers in PDThe online curriculum will extend our teamandapos s public health approach to professionalizing ASP youth care workers to improve program quality andultimatelyimprove socialemotionaland behavioral outcomes for youthIterative development and testing will enhance and document the benefits of our proposed online PD curriculum to elevate the role of ASP youth care workers to ASP professionalsOur goal is to support broad scale dissemination and use of our online SEL training suite for ASP providersWe will market the final product as a cost and time efficient means to address the PD training needs of the more thanfrontline youth care workers in the U Safter school market Project Narrative After school programs are widely recognized for their potential benefits to positive youth developmenthoweverin the absence of requirements for education or certificationand with few options for career advancementafter school youth care providers represent a part time and transient workforce with limited opportunities or resources for trainingThis SBIR Phase I proposal is to develop and field test a web based platform to professionalize the after school workforce by providing information about youth development and mental healthevidence based recommendations for creating and capitalizing on teachable moments to build social emotional skillsand resources for engaging youth and families in health promotion