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We All Need Help Sometimes

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the opportunity for us to recognize the truth in that statement: “We all need help sometimes.” The indefinite nature of the pandemic — its length, its pervasiveness, its capacity to infect people — has caused mental and physical stress for many individuals. They wonder: What will be impacted today? When will we be “back to normal”? Will we ever return to the way it was or will there be a new normal? If so, what will that look like? Should we postpone this event? When will we be able to hold a place-based gathering safely?

Center for Safe Schools Offers Bullying Prevention Programs, Training and Free Resources

Nationally recognized organization continues to lead bullying prevention and school safety efforts; announces major conference

HARRISBURG, Pa., October 8, 2020 — As the nation observes Bullying Prevention Month this October, the Center for Safe Schools is proud to offer free online resources as part of its ongoing commitment to serving schools, communities, parents and students in Pennsylvania and beyond. In addition, the Center will convene experts in December for a virtual conference.

Over one in four children in the U.S. report experiences with bullying, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Bullying is an important public health issue known to have negative effects on children’s physical and emotional well-being, social development and learning.

Creating Connection: Family History and Children

Connection. Feeling connected to loved ones and the world around them is crucial for children’s well-being and healthy emotional development. Connection occurs when caregivers empathize with children’s experiences, support children’s ideas and interests and encourage curiosity.

Million Girls Moonshot Comes to Pennsylvania! State’s Afterschool Network Joins Nationwide Effort To Close the Gender Gap in STEM

The STEM Next Opportunity Fund announced a multi-year grant to PSAYDN as part of the Million Girls Moonshot. The Intel Foundation and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation have joined STEM Next Opportunity Fund and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to launch the Million Girls Moonshot. The effort is designed to engage one million school-age girls in the United States in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — learning opportunities over the next five years. The organizations will provide grant funding and in-kind resources to Mott-funded afterschool networks in all 50 states to increase access to hands-on, immersive STEM learning experiences. The first-year Pennsylvania grant, just awarded, is for $55,500.

New Report Cites Importance of Balancing Changes for COVID-19 with Security Protocols to Prevent Violence

Center for Safe Schools Offers School Safety Assessment Services
Recently, the United States Department of Justice released a report that highlights key practices to prevent school attacks, as well as the importance of comprehensive school safety assessments. The Center for Safe Schools Certified Assessment Team conducts comprehensive safety assessments that meet and often exceed all recommendations and requirements of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Interstate Summer Virtual Camp for Migrant Middle School Students a Success

Brain STEM: An Interstate Summer Virtual Camp for Migrant Middle School Students began Monday, August 3 with more than 50 students from Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska and Pennsylvania. Languages spoken among the student population were Nepali, Swahili, Somali, Khmer, Gwich’in (Alaska Native), Qʼanjobʼal (Mayan/Guatemala), and Spanish.

First Interstate Migrant Education Summer Virtual Program includes students from Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska and Pennsylvania

Camp Connect is a 4-day virtual camp offered July 20-23, 2020 and is designed for high school migrant students. Through virtual learning, participants will gain leadership skills and strengthen academics around STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math). This virtual camp allows the student’s unimpeded access to build relationships with other campers, feel safe and secure, and establish rapport with the instructors and other staff.

Two Center for Schools and Communities Initiatives Can Help Organizations Implement COVID-19 School Health and Safety Grants

The Center for Safe Schools and the Center for the Promotion of Social and Emotional Learning offer services and resources available to fulfill funding requests submitted in recent proposals for the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency entitled COVID-19 School Health and Safety Grants. These are non-competitive grant issuances for educational organizations that require a few straightforward, streamlined steps to secure funding for your organization.

EdTech resources, increase parental engagement and equitable learning opportunities for multilingual students during distance learning

Since Pennsylvania schools switched to distance learning in mid-March, PA educators have rapidly evolved to meet the new challenges of the virtual classroom. Integrating technology into the classroom has always presented practical challenges for teachers: identifying and learning EdTech tools, providing students with technical devices and necessary software, developing new pedagogical approaches, and investing significant amounts of time creating new curricula. School closures and the switch to distance learning, however, has revealed the extent of the digital divide among students. Many children, including English learners, lack access to devices and/or reliable internet to complete assignments and homework remotely. This issue of Everybody’s Kids provides helpful EdTech resources, discusses ways to increase parental engagement during distance learning, and examines strategies for promoting equitable learning opportunities for multilingual students within your school district.

Everybody’s Kids is an e-newsletter for all Pennsylvania educators of English learners, including administrators, content-area and classroom teachers and ESL specialists.

School Safety Assessments This Summer

For more than two decades, the Center for Safe Schools has been committed to developing creative and effective solutions to problems that disrupt the educational process and affect school safety. The Center provides training and technical assistance to help schools identify and implement effective programs and practices, and maintain safe, productive learning environments. In addition, the Center serves as a statewide clearinghouse for educators, parents, law enforcement and others on school safety and youth violence prevention.

Mindfulness and Parenting

Parenting can bring waves of feelings. There are high and low emotional tides, and in between there is always movement. As caregivers navigate this complex moment in time, mindfulness can help adults to care for themselves and build protective factors.

Testimony to the House Education Committee: Reopening of Pennsylvania Schools

On Wednesday, June 17, 2020, the Pennsylvania Statewide Afterschool/Youth Development Network (PSAYDN) provided written testimony, in partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs Pennsylvania Alliance and the Pennsylvania State Alliance of YMCAs, to a virtual House Education Committee information meeting to discuss plans to safely reopen schools in the fall due to COVID-19. The testimony informed how afterschool can support schools in their reopening, shared various learning models across the state, and provided recommendations in spacing, funding and support.