Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative

Summer 2008 Request for Proposals

Eligible to apply:

Programs in Springfield and Holyoke that:

  • Serve youth ages 5-15
  • Provide summer programming at least 4 days/week, 5 hrs per day, at least 5 weeks
  • Serve at least 20 children/youth per day

Application Due: January 8, 2008 1:00 p.m.

Maura Geary, Director of Public Policy and Community Planning

Prefer electronic copy to

Or by regular mail to United Way of PioneerValley

184 Mill Street

P.O. Box 3040

Springfield, MA 01108

Please direct questions electronically. Responses will be posted to all applicants:

Maura Geary,

Susan O’Connor,

Decisions to be announced by January 16, 2008

(Process includes review by HSLI Planning Committee and may include an

interview and/or site visit)

Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative

A Partnership of Hasbro, Inc., United Way of the PioneerValley, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, WestMOST Network, and the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation

INTRODUCTION

Summer is a time of great promise for youth. In the best of all worlds, every young person should be able to fill each summer day with experiences that broaden their horizons, with time to learn, be outdoors, and be engaged in positive relationships with peers and adults. We know that youth benefit from consistent participation in well-run, quality out-of-school time programs, but studies find that those youth who are most in need continue to have limited access to effective programs. (Critical Hours: Afterschool Programs and Educational Success, Miller).

The summer of 2007 saw the release of The Learning Season: the Untapped Power of Summer to Advance Student Achievement (Miller). The report summarizes research that indicates that:

  • More than half of the achievement gap between lower and high income youth can be explained by the unequal access to summer opportunities. As a result, low-income youth are less likely to graduate from high school or enter college (Alexander, K., Entwisle, D. and Olson, L. 2007).
  • Low-income youth lose more than two months in reading achievement in the summer months, while their middle-class peers make slight gains (Cooper, 1996). By 5th grade, the loss accumulates to a two-year difference in reading scores.
  • Most children gain weight more rapidly when they are out of school during the summer. Summer time is increasingly recognized as a contributor to the nation’s child obesity epidemic (Von Hippel, P., Powell, B. Downey, D. and Rowland, N. 2007).

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Hasbro, Inc has provided a third year of fundingto the Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative (HSLI) for the summer of 2008. The initiative is designed to leverage existing or new resources to capture the potential of summer programs to ensure positive academic and developmental outcomes, especially for low-income youth. In 2008, HSLI will:

Provide 20 programs in HampdenCountywith thematic curricula for hands-on exploration, discovery, and learning. Curriculum choices are:

Boston Children’s Museum curriculum that builds on Design-It materials (best for ages 6-11)

Connecticut River Watershed, Hampshire Educational Collaborative (best for ages 8-15)

Discover Springfield, HSLI Planning Committee (best for ages 6-11)

Hip Hop/Drumming, Community Music School of Springfield (best for ages 9-15)

Exploring the Arts (visual arts section for ages 6-15, theater for ages 10-15, photography for 6-11)

Fitness/nutrition (best for ages 6-11)

2 other curricula to be selected December 17 by the HSLI Planning Committee. The new curriculum may be Outdoor Adventure, Comic Book Art, Career or College Exploration.

Provide staff with the following training and planning supports:

January 15, 22, or 24th for program leaders to sample the curriculum

Five Director support meetings, starting in March

March 20 full-day training for core staff team

May 22 (tentative) Read Boston training

June 14 training for full staff team, preceded by an evening training that week

Identify community resources and partners and increase the linkages between programs, schools, and families to enhance the summer experiences of our youth.

Provide enhanced summer model for 9-10 programs with technical assistance from program specialist OR a literacy specialist, a $3,000 action grant, and evaluation of the results of the extra resources. (In addition, HSLI staff continue to focus on fundraising, hoping to increase the number of programs that can receive enhance supports)

Build summer scholarships fund to increase access for children and youth

Support teen apprenticeships with stipends and support for teens to work in summer programs.

Join us in making Summer 2008 a memorable one for the youth in western Massachusetts!

PROGRAM DETAILS

Basic Supports

20 programs that serve children and youth ages 5-15 in Springfield and Holyoke will receive these supports:

  1. Information about the RFP and the project, along with an overview about each of the 8 curricula available at HolyokeCommunity College.
  2. $400 of thematic curriculum resources to guide structured, linked activities. Themes to select from are listed on the project description on page 2.
  3. Training and support, including:

At least 5 meetings of program directors/HSLI champions, starting in March

One day training for staff leadership team in March

Half day training May 22 from Read Boston about literacy strategies

One evening training in June with full staff to introduce the curriculum

One day training for staff June 14, 8:30-4:30 on curriculum and behavior management

Recipient Responsibilities
  1. Highly encourage participation of a 2-3 person team at the January sampling workshop, so the team can sample a number of curriculum choices. .
  2. Identify a person at each participating site to be the HSLI champion. This person may be the Program Director/site coordinator, but can be another individual. Responsibilities are:

Contact person to HSLI staff, evaluation team, and curriculum or literacy specialist (responding to emails and calls within 2 business days)

Attend peer support meetings for HSLI Champions

Assemble staff team of 4-6 to attend March training and 4-8 for June training

Oversee implementation of the thematic curriculum and organizational change required for quality summer program

  1. Select one or more thematic curriculum to implement.
  2. Have materials needed for curriculum implementation by June 1

7. Implement the thematic curriculum with consistent group of children for at least 30 hours.

8. Respond to basic information needed by evaluators. There will be a new focus for this year’s evaluation on program improvement. Each site will develop a plan to work on 2-3 quality improvement areas, based on program observations.

Enhanced Supports

Recipients will receive all basic supports, but 10 programs will also receive:

  1. A $3,000 incentive grant to provide enhancements to the summer program. Acceptable expenses (additional materials, transportation and entrance fees to cultural and recreational facilities, events to engage families, staff training and prep time, staff specialists with skills related to the curriculum, costs for culminating performance or project).
  2. A curriculum specialist OR a literacy specialist for 7 weeks (7-10 hours per week) during the summer and up to 10 hours planning time in the spring. The curriculum specialist can assist with curriculum planning, coaching staff to implement the curriculum, identifying additional curriculum extensions, modeling more technical units of the curriculum, quality improvement of the program. (Please note that the musicians from the CommunityMusicSchool will provide 5 hours per week of support for the Hip Hop/Drumming curriculum). The literacy specialist can provide literacy activities for the full group, coaching to build staff capacity to provide literacy activities, and work with individual or small groups of children on specific literacy skills (e.g. comprehension, decoding, writing, etc.)
  3. Access to additional resources and volunteers.
  4. Be part of a more intensive evaluation of the project.
In addition to basic support requirements, extended support recipients must also:
  1. Work with the project coordinator on an approved plan for incentive grant expenditures
  2. Provide records and receipts for the $3,000 incentive grant by August 30
  3. Negotiate a plan for technical assistance with curriculum specialist OR literacy specialist and project coordinator
  4. Involve at least 75% of participating youth in a culminating performance or project
  5. Provide program orientation and supervision for additional staff and volunteers.
  6. Work with the evaluator on additional outcomes evaluation requirements, in addition to the program improvement plan.

I. BASIC SERVICES Information Needed

Contact information

Agency______

Program Site that is applying ______

HSLI Champion ______

Address ______

Phone # ______Email ______

Program Narrative

Please address the following questions briefly. Phrases and bullet points are acceptable. This application is intended to provide us with the basic information that we need and indicate your program's interest in the project. We do NOT want it to be a cumbersome, time-consuming process for you.

1. Please provide a brief description of your organization.

  1. Fill in the following information:
  1. Number of children or youth served at this site during the year ______
  1. Number of children/youth to be served by HSLI supports ______
  1. Ages of children/youth served by HSLI supports ______

d. Hours that the program runs during the summer ______

  1. Schedule for the summer program (months, days of week) ______

f. How many staff do you estimate will work on the HSLI project ______

  1. How many of these staff will be new hires for the summer?
  1. Please indicate the average amount of time per week in the summer you allocate for
  1. Staff meetings ______
  1. Planning time for curriculum ______

3. Time to reflect on how things are going and what needs to change ______

3a. What are the strengths of your past summer programs?

3b. What are THREE areas that most need to change about your summer program?

3c. Describe the experience staff have had in curriculum planning and implementation, including a description of any experience you have had with thematic curriculum.

4. What are your initial preferences for curriculum? Please indicate your top choice for curriculum with a #1, second choice with a #2, and third choice with a #3. (Please note that all programs will receive $400 free curriculum from the HSLI fund, and any additional costs for copies of curriculum for staff must be covered by the program. Most sites can afford to purchase 2 or possibly 3 different curriculum).

_____ Boston Children’s Museum curriculum that builds on Design-It materials (best for ages 6-11)

_____ Connecticut River Watershed, Hampshire Educational Collaborative (best for ages 8-15)

_____ Discover Springfield, HSLI Planning Committee (best for ages 6-11)

_____ Hip Hop/Drumming, Community Music School of Springfield (best for ages 9-15)

_____ Exploring the Arts (visual arts section for ages 6-15, theater for ages 10-15, photography for 6-11)

_____ Fitness/nutrition (best for ages 6-11)

_____ Outdoor adventure (7-14)

_____ Comic book art

_____College and career planning (12-15)

5a. Which program leaders would be able to attend the March l training?

5b. Please estimate how many staff you would like to attend the June 14 training ______

6a. Please indicate who will be the HSLI internal champion? ______

6b. Please attach a resume for the HSLI champion.

6c. Please have the HSLI champion write 2-3 paragraphs about how they will provide leadership to get staff to have a high level of buy-in for the implementation of the HSLI curriculum

II. Information to complete if your program is interested in Enhanced Services.

  1. If you indicated that you would like the $3,000 incentive grant, please indicate how you might use the funds?
  1. A. Please indicate which type of specialist you would prefer

______Curriculum specialist and please indicate for which curriculum ______

_____Literacy specialist

  1. Please indicate ways you anticipate using the type of specialist you selected (for spring planning and preparation, modeling the more technical aspects of the curriculum, helping to coach staff to best practice, identifying resources and extensions to use with the curriculum, etc.)

9. Our program would be interested in learning more about the teen apprenticeship program. Yes______No ______

10a. Our program would be interested in learning more about the summer fund for scholarships for children and youth ages 5-15. Yes _____ No _____

10b. How many slots could you add to your program and for what ages?

  1. Please take one page to describe your plan for implementation of the curriculum you have chosen, including information about:
  1. The number of youth, their ages, and number of hours they will spend on the thematic curriculum or suggested learning extensions.
  2. How you plan to increase their learning and skills this summer related to the curriculum and related to possible embedded learning, especially with literacy.
  3. What is your plan for involving them in a culminating performance and creation of a final product.
  4. Strategies you will use to support staff in implementation of the curriculum (e.g. more time for planning, time to reflect on progress or challenges, shifting of hiring priorities, etc.)
  5. Strategies the organization might use to support enhanced program quality (e.g. paying staff for increased time on planning and reflection, shifting of hiring priorities, etc.)

III. If you indicated that you would like to receive enhanced services, please fill out the following financial management information.

  1. Please describe the process your organization uses in developing the annual budget (the organizations’ budget as well as program budgets). Please include who is involved, how the budget is developed, the approval process used, etc.

B.Does your organization receive an annual audit_____yes _____no

C. Please describe how bills are opened, processed, and paid (include the role of the bookkeeper, executive director, board treasurer, etc.) Is this procedure directed by a Financial Internal Control Policy? _____ yes _____no

  1. Please describe how often you produce budget reports and how these reports are shared with the board, staff, etc. (for example, do board members receive regular financial reports? If yes, what type of reporting do you do?)

E. Would the $3,000 incentive grant be kept in a separate account with easy access to summer program leaders? _____ yes _____no.

If your answer was NO, please explain.

F. Please attach a copy of your agency budget AND a copy of the afterschool program budget (if you are a multi-service agency).

Signature:

(If submitting electronically, please type name and date.)

I certify that the information contained in this RFP is accurate, and that our agency will fully complete all recipient responsibilities listed in the above section

HSLI Champion Signature ______

Agency DirectorSignature ______

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