Youth program leaders are invited to apply for the year-long Afterschool Matters Practitioner Fellowship program, a professional development and leadership initiative for mid-level out-of-school time professionals. The program was developed by The National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) and the National Writing Project (NWP), and the NYC branch of this multi-city program is led by the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) and the NYC Writing Project at Lehman College. Participants become part of a community of practitioners; learn strategies to engage in program reflection and inquiry to improve programs and practice; engage in leadership activities to disseminate program improvement strategies, including sharing inquiry projects with colleagues, funders, and other key stakeholders; and write a middle school or high school age youth-focused inquiry paper. The application deadline is September 15, 2014.

The Robert Bowne Foundation and National Afterschool Association (NAA) are asking afterschool providers to share interesting and innovative practices in language and literacy. The information provided will be used to design a series of NAA webinars and offered for free on the new Bowne-funded Out-of-School Time Hub, which will be associated with Youth Today. Bowne and NAA are looking for ways that providers have engaged children and youth in reading, writing, English language acquisition, and academic and language development, particularly in fun ways that are culturally appropriate as well as appropriate for the afterschool and summer contexts. If a provider's ideas and/or lessons are used on the Hub, they and their agency's work will be fully acknowledged. In addition, they may be asked to participate in a Google Hangout as an afterschool expert. The Hangout will be recorded and uploaded to Youtube for viewing by the larger community.