2024 Bridge Conference

Afterschool and youth development programs play a critical role in promoting and supporting the healthy development of a young person to be able to thrive in school, community and life. Demands and needs of young people typically outpace program duration, staff availability, sometimes space, and oftentimes funding. The constant drumbeat of scarcity requires investing time in key relationships and partnerships that make 1 + 1 = 3 reality. And scaling relationship building efforts into short-term, mid-term, and long-term activities that temper expectations and support realities for everyone is worth the effort. This session is perfect for those interested in discovering new ways youth development leaders and staff can consider and dream about building relationships that will have a direct impact on your programming immediately, in a year, or well down the road. This session will lean more on group discussion and problem solving, but will be framed with abbreviated presentation.

As shifts in global migration continue, schools and community organizations are welcoming a diverse range of newcomers coming to the U.S. through the resettlement program. This session will delve into the emerging groups arriving in Washington, helping participants build a stronger understanding of these newcomers and the unique factors that shape their resettlement experiences. Participants will explore essential approaches for addressing the backgrounds, strengths, and challenges these populations bring, while also learning how to navigate key resources and data to remain informed about demographic trends. The session aims to empower educators and administrators to tailor their strategies at all levels—from individual classrooms to district-wide planning.

Conflict is an inevitable part of any environment, whether at work or home. Understanding how to identify, manage, and resolve conflict through the lens of basic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) can transform challenging situations into opportunities for growth and collaboration. This interactive 90-minute workshop will provide participants with the tools and strategies needed to navigate conflict effectively and equitably. Who Should Attend: - Team leaders and managers. - Employees seeking to enhance their conflict resolution skills. - Individuals interested in applying basic DEI principles in conflict management.

It only takes one moment for a student to hear “good job” and internalize that people-pleasing is the best way to achieve attention – essentially creating “praise junkies” in the blink of an eye. But when a trusted adult adjusts their language to specific feedback it only takes one moment to instill intrinsic motivation within the student – a moment that can lead to a movement of growth-minded young people. Join us for an engaging and transformative workshop on the benefits of specific feedback. Discover how shifting your classroom language from "good job" to specific, non-evaluative feedback can revolutionize your teaching approach and significantly benefit your students. Learn how specificity fosters growth-mindset, builds confidence, reduces anxiety and pressure, supports diverse learners, and creates an inclusive learning environment. Facilitated by self-proclaimed “education nerds” with backgrounds in theatre education and youth development, this workshop promises to be fun and educational. Participants will be actively involved, practicing the use of specific feedback with real-world classroom scenarios. This simple yet powerful tool can be seamlessly integrated into every learning environment, making a big impact on student development and classroom dynamics. By the end of the workshop, you will feel confident and empowered to implement non-evaluative language in your teaching practice, making your classroom a more supportive, motivating, and inclusive space for all students. Join us and transform your teaching with the power of specificity!

Can you have program quality without racial equity? This workshop is for all involved in promoting program quality, as everyone can make decisions and carry out actions with equity in mind. Building an equitable quality improvement system is like assembling a puzzle, where racial equity is integral to each piece. Participants will explore equity considerations within four quality improvement system components. We will discuss specific examples of policies and practices that contribute to equitable quality improvement. Collectively we will highlight themes, review resources, and support participants in developing plans to advance racial equity within their own program, organization, or system. This workshop is intended for individuals who work at the upper-management and leadership level, including system leaders and funders.

Four years after the Covid shutdowns, are kids just different now? How are the impacts showing up disproportionately for people of various races, ethnicities, identities, and abilities? Is it all “gaps” or did children also learn skills and knowledge we should be celebrating? As afterschool and youth development professionals, we know it’s very difficult to connect outcomes to specific experiences, even decades later. We’re beginning to see research now, but there’s a need for much more, and it’s likely to continue for years into the future, yet we are sensing some trends. For example, the 2-year-old who would have been learning facial expressions in child care instead saw masked faces, and now, at 6, are they connecting with peers in a different way? In this session, we’ll explore our own experiences with the children who were anywhere from 1 to 14 in 2020, how key developmental experiences might have looked different during these 4 years, and what we can do to support the now 5 to 18-year-olds we spend our time with.

Join us for an engaging workshop focused on enhancing your organization’s ability to recruit and retain BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) youth development professionals. In this 90-minute session, participants will explore the importance of diversity in youth development, effective strategies for attracting BIPOC talent, best practices for creating an inclusive workplace culture, and actionable steps to develop robust recruitment and retention plans. Whether you’re a manager, recruiter, or diversity advocate, this workshop equips you with practical insights and resources to foster a more diverse and impactful team.

Seattle Public Schools (SPS) launched a new version of Summer School in 2023 with a vision to create summer learning that wasn't focused solely on remediation, but could be an extension of the school year that provided academic supports with fun enrichment opportunities making a place kids would want to go to. The 'Yes! to Expanded Learning Planning Team", made up of cross-departmental district office staff, supported the development and implementation of six elementary school sites, which served as regional hubs for SPS students for a four-week session. The school day was similar in schedule to that during the school year, but was unique in that it included SPS led literacy and math instruction in the mornings and Community Based Organization (CBO) led STEAM based enrichment in the afternoons. SPS Instructional Assistants staffed the entire day providing some content connection and classroom management support throughout the day. The program expanded in 2024 to ten sites and included further integration between SPS and CBO programming. Prior to sessions starting, SPS and CBO staff participated in joint professional development and met at their school sites to prepare their classrooms. They also worked at creating a weekly family engagement communication and a culminating event where families were invited in to see various projects or performances that their children shared. Evaluation of the program was gathered through surveys and focus groups of students, families and staff; the vision is to continue to refine and expand programming in the summer while also providing a model to advocate for central office sponsored expanded learning partnership and offerings throughout the entire school year.

Are you a youth worker who values restorative practices, youth voice, and growing equitable and connected program spaces? This workshop is for those who are excited by the liberatory possibilities of community circles, by the why, and are looking for guidance on how. Moving beyond the programmatic foundations of emotional safety and self- and co-regulation, we’ll link individual practices like developing agreements, using mistakes as opportunities for repair, and solutions vs consequences into a scaffolded process to implement community circles in youth programs. This workshop also provides specific strategies to teach these higher-order SEL practices to youth.