Finally Writing About It.

When I got asked what I was going to “be” when I grew up, I never thought that working in Out of School Time would have been part of my career path. I always assumed I’d be something like the President of the United States or the first woman to play in the NBA. You could never say that I lacked ambition, right?

Somehow, I landed working in afterschool program in my early 20’s and ten years later, I’m still circling around the field. For 6 of those years I was a Program Director of a middle school program serving almost up to 80 youth per day (shhhh! don’t tell the licensors!) and managing a team of front line Youth Workers. While it’s not the job that I drew pictures about as a kid, it became exactly the kind of work that I had always dreamt of doing.

Running an afterschool program is more than just glorified babysitting, or some sort of afterthought into a child’s life. When it’s done right, it can transform the lives of those within its ecosystem. Now that I have officially left my position, and am not directly serving young people, I want to reflect on some lessons from the field, both professional and personal.

I look forward to sharing stories about leadership (successes and challenges), commentary on the youth development field and its future, and all of the ther things that come with being on the ground doing social change work.

While I was in the thick of it, I kept detailed journals and reflections. So when folks asked me,
”hHave you written about this?,'" the answer has always been yes. But, it wasn’t until today that I know I finally have something to say about it… all of it.