News Updates

Learning From Nation’s ‘Thought Leaders’ in After-School Care

Published on March 4th, 2019 in Fair Share Housing Development

By Michael Morris, MDOC Education Director

I recently had the privilege of attending the Beyond School Hours Conference, a four-day gathering of educators and leaders serving K-12 students in school, after-school, summertime and beyond. This was an exciting time for me, as I wanted to take as much as I could in and bring it all back to our very own education center.

Over the course of this national conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia, I spent almost 50 hours attending workshops, breakout sessions, listening to speakers, and participating in activities designed by some of the most prominent members of the field. Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, was the keynote speaker and discussed many of the challenges that our youth today face. It was incredibly inspiring to hear how that, when Harlem Children’s Zone was starting out, the premier afterschool program in the country faced many of the same struggles that we face. Spending these days with so many enthusiastic people who have dedicated their lives to out-of-school time (OST) helped rejuvenate my own passion in our program. I hope in the next few months to begin implementing many of the programs I learned of including: meal programs, new data collection, and closer partnerships with community programing.