Environment & Climate in Afterschool

A quality afterschool program provides a safe, clean, and developmentally appropriate environment that reflects the needs and interests of all youth. A quality program supports youth development and encourages positive interactions among youth and adults. The physical space and materials should be well-equipped for all activities.

Relationships

Leave Them Wanting More!: Engaging Youth in Afterschool

The author of this resource explores the dimensions along which afterschool programs can engage youth and offers promising practices for afterschool programs to do this well.

7 Tips to Positive Behavior

Positive behavior begins and ends with relationships—not with the rules. The National Afterschool Association’s 7 tips will help you cultivate an environment of meaningful connections between staff and youth at your program.

Building Supportive Relationships in Aftersc hool

This paper examines how afterschool providers can build stronger relationships that will benefit all stakeholders.

Youth-Adult Partnership Rubric

This rubric from the Community Evaluation and Research Collaborative is a research-based assessment tool for professional development to increase youth voice and youth leadership.

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (Resources and Training)

This online resource center provides the materials necessary to build and sustain the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework. Materials emphasize the impact PBIS has on social, emotional, and academic outcomes of students with disabilities.

Cooperative Learning Guidebook, David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality

Building Supportive Relationships in Afterschool, SEDL

Bullying Prevention

Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

This comprehensive approach has been shown to reduce bullying among children, improve the social climate of classrooms, and reduce related antisocial behaviors, such as vandalism and truancy.

Bullying and Children with Special Needs

This guide was created to achieve three goals; educate parents on the issue, empower parents and educators to take action and apply meaningful change in the classroom and children’s lives, and assist the actions of policy makers, school administration and professionals in a team effort to ensure that the issue is at the forefront in the public arena.

Assessing Bullying: A Guide for Out-of-School Time Program Practitioners

This paper will help programs be able to identify bullying, and to promote conflict resolution techniques for youth in the afterschool setting.

Great Anti Bullying Activities and Lesson Plans

This list of activities from the Leisure Information Network can help you start conversations around bullying and self-acceptance.

Bullying in Out-of-School Time Programs: Tips for Youth-Serving Professionals and Volunteers

This fact sheet from stopbullying.gov gives OST providers tips on preventing bullying and promoting a positive environment.

The Right to Be Safe: Putting an End to Bullying Behavior

This comprehensive book from the Search Institute covers all aspects of bullying behavior and its consequences, and offers the information needed to keep all kids safe in a more positive environment.

Program Space & Materials

Foundations for Young Adult Success: A Developmental Framework

The Foundations for Young Adult Success developmental framework describes how to enact frameworks and standards that provide guidance on what young people need to learn in school, out of school, and at home.

A Place of Their Own: Designing Quality Space for Out-of-School Time

This video showcases space as another element in developing and maintaining a quality program. Included in this video are: strategies and guidelines for improving an existing space or building a new facility, suggestions for designing space to meet the safety, comfort, and creative needs of all children and staff, and tips on designing indoor and outdoor spaces to positively influence program quality.

Afterschool Materials Guide

This guide provides afterschool providers with support in the selection of equipment and materials and encourages them to create attractive, exciting and more effective afterschool environments.

Great Afterschool Programs and Spaces That Wow! (Book)

This book is filled with hundreds of ideas that will help you create a high quality school-age program that is exciting, inviting, and reflects the interests, abilities, and needs of the children.

Maximizing Your Space

How you arrange the environment can impact the way that youth engage and experience science learning in your program. Learn from Click2Science how to set up your space and explore strategies for arranging materials to maximize youth engagement.

Afterschool Academies Guidebook for Action

This guide is based on the Afterschool Academies model. It provides design basics, agendas and handouts, outlines of breakout sessions, discussion-group guides, facilitators’ materials, and planning tools.

Great Afterschool Programs and Spaces That Wow! (Book)

This book is filled with hundreds of ideas that will help you create a high quality school-age program that is exciting, inviting, and reflects the interests, abilities, and needs of the children.

Making a Makerspace? Guidelines for Accessibility and Universal Design

This document from the University of Washington outlines guidelines, questions, and best practices to consider in creating, retrofitting, or maintaining makerspaces to make it accessible to as many individuals as possible.

Injury Prevention

Bicycle Rodeo Toolkit

Host a Bicycle Rodeo with the help of Safe Routes to School! Teach kids bike safety by skill level and age group.

A Place of Their Own: Designing Quality Space for Out-of-School Time

Teen Dating Violence

Did You Know?

Did you know that 89 % of Georgia parents are satisfied with the safe environment of their child’s afterschool program?