The Summer Activity Guides are a suite of fun and engaging activities and challenges designed specifically for this atypical summer.
We see youth development and summer learning providers across the country preparing for a summer filled with uncertainty and stepping up in innovative ways to support youth, families, and communities. We have heard your concerns about how to maintain engagement throughout an atypical summer, and we understand your anxieties as you navigate these uncharted territories.
To support your hard work, we have been developing a suite of fun and engaging activities and challenges designed specifically to accommodate COVID-19 health and safety challenges summer. We hope that as you read this, you will feel that planning for summer just got a whole lot easier.
What You Can Expect:
- 150 Activities and Challenges Segmented into four age groups (5-9) (10-12) (13-15) (16-18) and produced around five themes.
- Adaptable for in-person and virtual instruction, or a hybrid of both, as well as sent as take-home packets
- Based in skill building & social emotional learning
- THEME 1: Who I Am
- THEME 2: Healthy Life
- THEME 3: Passion & Purpose
- THEME 4: Invention & Imagination
- THEME 5: Exploring My World
Instructional Webinars for Providers
- Getting to Know the New Summer Activity Guide
- Keeping Youth Engaged This Summer
- Answering Your Questions and Sharing Ideas for “Passions & Purpose” (Wednesday, July 1 from 3pm-4pm EST) – Dive deeper into the third unit of the Summer Activity Guide: “Passion & Purpose.”
- Answering Your Questions and Sharing Ideas for “Invention & Imagination” (Thursday, July 16 from 3pm-4pm EST) – Dive deeper into the fourth unit of the Summer Activity Guide: “Invention & Imagination.”
- Answering Your Questions and Sharing Ideas for “Exploring My World” (Thursday, July 30 from 3pm-4pm EST) – Dive deeper into the fifth and final unit of the Summer Activity Guide: “Exploring my World.”
Quick Guides for Providers
- Strategies to Implement Activities in Different Settings
- Safety Considerations for Virtual Facilitation
- Staff Resource: Supporting Your Emotional Well-Being
- Staff Resource: Recognizing and Managing Stress in Youth
Feedback Tools
- Quick Guide: Using Family & Youth Feedback to Improve Summer Programming
- Quick Guide: Summer Programming Feedback: Sample Questions for Teens
- Quick Guide: Summer Programming Feedback: Samples Questions for Families
Quick Guides for Families
- Family Resource: Supporting Youth at Home
- Family Resource: Supporting Virtual Summer Programming in the Home
- Family Resource: Recognizing and Managing Stress in Youth
Videos
Pre-recorded videos walking program staff through an overview of each “Activity Batch,” highlighting specific activities, and providing tips for modification are listed with the five themes above.
When You Can Expect It:
The first of five batches was released on 5/27, and others will be released over the next 10 weeks: beginning the week of May 25 through the week of August 14.
Looking for other activities right now? Check out the Mizzen app made just for afterschool and summer programs. Read more about it here.
The Summer Activity Guide has been developed for the 50 State Afterschool Network with leadership from the Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network to engage and support children and youth nationwide.