On January 24, the Office of Child Development, APOST and ALCOSAN sponsored the 2014 Everything Afterschool Time Enrichment Fair.
Our STARS-TA project and SAC (School Age Care) projects both had tables and were able to engage attendees.
Over 25 out-of-school time enrichment and resource providers hosted a table at the fair. There was also a book exchange where participants were encouraged to bring books from their sites and participate in order to refresh the books in their library. There was also a raffle with fun prizes including gift certificates to local cafes to keep the afterschool conversation going.
Also new this year, was the option to attend one of two workshop sessions. One was geared toward Enrichment Resource Providers, titled "Teamwork at Its Best - How to Collaborate with OST Providers to Ensure Quality Enrichment". In this session, attendees were able to:
- Understand the relationships between enrichment providers and OST providers
- Learn about what questions to ask OST providers to better assess logistics and important information on how OST providers run their programs
- Learn best practices that can be utilized to better serve OST providers
The second workshop was targeted toward Out of School Time Providers, and was titled "Best Practices for Working with Enrichment Providers". In this session, attendees were able to:
- Understand the expectations OST providers should have of the enrichment provider
- Know what questions to ask, both internally and externally
- Know the appropriate timeline and structure for working with an enrichment provider
The Office of Child Development is happy to be a part of this engagement for two years now, and understands that partnerships and collaboration is really what brings the work to life.