Likes
When staff are engaged early, they infuse programs with energy that comes from sharing their unique talents and interests with youth.
PREPARE FOR STAFFING & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Attracting, hiring, and training talented, enthusiastic staff is one of the biggest challenges summer programs face. It helps to start early with a plan for staffing and professional development.
Reflect
When planning for staffing and professional development, consider:
- When should we begin recruiting so staff are hired in time to ensure proper training?
- How will we get summer staff excited about and engaged in the program’s vision?
- How can we get the word out about summer staffing needs? What individuals or organizations do we want to reach out to specifically?
- Who’s missing? Which community members aren’t reflected in our hiring, and how can we include them? Can we expand our definition of “instructor” to expand our potential talent pool?
- How will we give staff opportunities to showcase their passions, talents and interests?
- When and how will we train summer program staff?
- How will we hire to reflect the population we serve?
- What professional development opportunities will we provide? Who can help us with this?
Tools
STAFFING TOOL
This staffing tool, developed for Summer Rising, helps identify staff positions, roles and responsibilities to help you plan your staffing needs.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (PD) TOOLS
This professional development tool from Summer Rising is handy for mapping out PD needs and opportunities.
This Professional Development Plan and this Developing as an Afterschool Professional guide from Beyond the Bell are useful for identifying individual staff members’ PD needs.
