Featured Speaker Session:
The African Proverb reminds us that “It takes a village to raise a child,” which brings us to the question: What kind of village are we building?
This high-energy, inspiring session will challenge and encourage conference participants to see themselves not simply as out-of-school time professionals, but as Village Builders, individuals who collectively shape the academic, social, emotional, and physical well-being of Virginia’s children and youth.
Participants will leave feeling renewed in purpose, connected to one another, and empowered to strengthen the partnerships that make quality out-of-school time possible.
Workshop Description:
Launching a successful youth program is only the beginning. By November, many out-of-school time programs have settled into routines – but small challenges can quietly become major obstacles if left unaddressed. This interactive session equips youth program leaders with a practical framework for conducting a mid-semester “program maintenance check.” Participants will assess the health of their systems, partnerships, and youth engagement while developing an action plan to strengthen their programs for the remainder of the school year.
Workshop Description:
Children who experience adversity often carry invisible wounds that shape how they learn, behave, trust, and connect with others. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have profound and lasting effects on brain development, physical and mental health, emotional regulation, relationships, and lifelong well-being. While out-of-school time professionals cannot change a child’s past, they can become one of the most powerful protective factors in that child’s future
Workshop Description:
Building a thriving community requires equipping the next generation with the practical tools they need to navigate their financial futures. Financial literacy is more than understanding numbers – it is a foundational skill that strengthens youth, families, and the broader village. However, traditional financial education often struggles to keep young learners engaged.
Workshop Description:
Every young person deserves to know they are one trusted connection away from support. In out-of-school time programs, staff often serve as the consistent adults who notice changes, build relationships, and create safe spaces where youth feel seen and heard. But after relationships are established, many practitioners ask, “What do I do next?”
Workshop Description:
Out-of-school time professionals spend their creating safe, supportive spaces where young people can learn, grow, and thrive, but who is caring for the caregivers? This interactive workshop explores the connection between adult wellness and youth success, with a focus on burnout, boundaries, resilience, and building supportive professional communities. Participants will reflect on their own “village,” identify sources of support, and leave with practical strategies for creating cultures of wellness, connection, and sustainability within their programs. Grounded in SEL and the belief that adults need a village too, this session invites participants to consider how caring for ourselves and one another strengthens the village we build for young people.
Workshop Description:
Strong community relationships serve as the foundation for a successful OST program that captures the interest and involvement of students and their families. Establishing effective partnerships and tapping into local community strengths can be daunting. However, with the right tools and strategies, you can create a thriving environment that fosters engagement and growth for all participants. Join us for an interactive session where you will discover three practical skills that will empower you to enhance your OST program immediately.
Workshop Description:
Research on workplace well-being points to five essentials every individual on the team needs to thrive: protection from harm, connection and community, work-life harmony, mattering at work, and opportunities for growth. This workshop is built for organizational leaders, programs managers and staff supervisors responsible for shaping culture through the daily, human work of leading adult times.
Workshop Description:
We’ll provide an overview about Aspire’s decision to launch a youth apprenticeship program, how we designed the program, the core components of the program, and early lessons learned.
Workshop Description:
This session introduces Dr. Tamice Spencer-Helms’s soulful leadership framework: a soul-centered approach to understanding how meaningful change takes root in communities. Rather than treating leadership as a title, position, or top-down strategy, this framework explores leadership as an embodied, relational, and spiritually grounded practice that emerges from within a community’s lived wisdom. Participants will be invited to consider how communities transform when people attend to the interior life of leadership: values, memory, grief, imagination, belonging, courage, and collective care.
Workshop Description:
How can OST programs inspire a lifelong love of reading while keeping youth actively engaged? Learn how First Book – a non-profit organization that provides resources for those that serve under-resourced communities – created an innovative approach to engaging youth through a unique, student-facing virtual game show series developed in partnership with One Word at a Time (OWAAT). The series, entitled Story Showdown and hosted by Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander, was designed to broaden access to celebrated authors for middle schoolers in under-resourced communities. This session will demonstrate how literary events packaged in new, bold formats can engage youth as active participants. Workshop participants will discover how to leverage these free virtual events and integrate storytelling methods into their own OST programs.
Workshop Description:
When afterschool staff feel confident, supported, and inspired, students thrive. But across the country, programs are stretched thin: 81% of providers cite staffing as a major concern, and among the hardest-hit, more than half say burnout is a leading obstacle to recruiting and retaining great people.
This session flips the script, giving afterschool teams the tools and training to lead with confidence, spark student joy, and deliver enrichment that makes a lasting impact. With programs across the country striving to do more with less, we’ll explore how a thoughtful blend of technology, hands-on learning, and energizing professional development can boost staff morale, reduce prep time, and turn daily enrichment into something truly meaningful.
By focusing on people-first solutions that are easy to implement and built to inspire, this session offers a roadmap for creating environments where staff feel like leaders, and students feel excited to learn, create, and grow.
Workshop Description:
Through the training, educators will learn best practices for implementing the NBA Math Hoops game and curriculum, gain free access to the Learn Fresh program management platform and all program materials, and learn about opportunities to extend students’ learning through virtual and in-person community events. Educators will immediately gain access to all materials needed to begin implementing with students in their programs and classrooms.
