Ignite Afterschool

In 2023, Ignite Afterschool led advocacy and issue education work focused on highlighting geography, race, and income-based access gaps to high quality afterschool and summer learning programs. Ignite convened and facilitated a Policy Coordinating Council that meets monthly with over 16 organizations. This Ignite-led coalition supported policy efforts that resulted in an appropriation of $30M over four years for the Afterschool Community Learning Grant program. Ignite launched a youth-led policy effort called the Cannabis Awareness and Education Council for Youth (CAEC) to ensure Minnesota's new recreational cannabis law does not negatively impact young people 24 and under. 8 members of CAEC met 8 times and held four listening sessions with other youth, 2 of which were in Greater Minnesota. CAEC produced a report with five recommendations that ensure young people's voice, education, and health and wellness needs are centered in the implementation of recreational cannabis laws. Ignite also supported 7 organizations to hold Lights on Afterschool celebrations and program site visits that were attended by 11 legislators and many other stakeholders in their community. We held a Youth Policy Forum with over 80 participants on June 1st to educate the field on policy that impacts young people and that passed during the 2023 legislative session. Ignite Afterschool supported professional development and continuous program improvement (CPI) resources for Minnesota's afterschool community. Ignite Afterschool facilitates a continuous program improvement coordinating council of 11 partner organizations that work together to operate the annual, statewide M3 Continuous Program Improvement process. We completed the 2022-2023 M3 Cycle by hosting open M3 Huddles across the state. We kicked off the 2023-2024 M3 CPI cycle by training 25 new licensed M3 process facilitators and holding two M3 Cycle kick-off events with a total of 80 attendees. 9 open M3 huddles were scheduled and coordinated for early 2024. The organization that provided school age care accreditation is no longer able to support this activity. Ignite Afterschool was tapped to lead an interim school-age care accreditation program while simultaneously leading a 9-person Design Team to develop a more permanent solution. 23 school-age care sites were accredited through the interim process. The Design Team designed a more permanent solution called i-SAC by attending regular meetings and holding 3 listening sessions that engaged 60 interested organizations. A "quality navigator" was developed which added benchmark standards to Ignite's afterschool effective practices. A logo and promotional video were created to prepare for the 2024 launch of the i-SAC program. Ignite also led a collaborative design team to inform a new hybrid (virtual and in-person) youth work professional development system. The team completed a branding process naming the program PDX (professional development exchange) and developing the on-line virtual platform. Training curriculum was developed to align with Ignite's Believe It. Build It. Minnesota Guide to Effective Practices' 2nd and 4th effective practice building blocks. The Training of Trainers was piloted at the November Believe and Build grantee convening with a public 2024 launch. To advance network and partnership building, Ignite Afterschool was a key partner acting as host for early investments that launched the MN STEM Ecosystem in 2023. Ignite led a process to hire the founding Director of the MN STEM Ecosystem and supported initiative branding and logo development. In November we launched a community of practice for the initial four regional STEM hubs and supported five afterschool program providers to get extensive professional development and coaching in the STEM Justice model in partnership with the Science Museum of Minnesota. Lastly, Ignite Afterschool continued to support a covid-relief funded afterschool grant program called Believe and Build Afterschool grants. We completed performance and fiscal grant monitoring of grantees while also supporting professional development and capacity building through quarterly grantee meetings and a November two-day professional development convening.