Stories From the Field: America SCORES on the MOVE at After School Conference

Last Saturday, America SCORES Bay Area participated in the 3^rd Annual Bridging the Bay Conference, a unique venue for after-school programs and professionals to collaborate on best practices and identify the needs and challenges that we face within these important hours of our children’s education, safety and growth.

The entire America SCORES Bay Area staff came out to proudly represent our unique combination of poetry, performance, soccer, and teamwork.  America SCORES invested in this opportunity for professional development as a sponsoring exhibitor and as a featured workshop provider.  We also provided lunchtime entertainment with standout performances from our NYC SLAM! poet-athletes Nisrine and Sergio!  Staff met friends new and old at our booth and facilitated a soccer-oriented training that focused on ways to teach athletic, poetic, and life skills in a fun, inclusive way.  Program Director Yuri Morales and Education Director Marty Mannion led this workshop on physical and mental muscle with a detailed soccer practice and follow-up discussion on how to utilize the team sport to create meaningful lessons involving conflict resolution.  By the end of the workshop, over twenty after-school site coordinators and staff members were breathing hard, showing off new skills, smiling, and even cheering on teammates they just met.

Nisrine and Sergio performed at the Bridging the Bay Conference.

This soccer session was one of almost fifty workshops to choose from. Throughout the day, the greatest challenge was choosing between a range of high-quality workshops that spanned from nutrition education, to “Getting Things Done,” to inspiring future engineers. With all the connections made between school sites and creative programs, it was clear that every attendee walked away inspired with new ideas, new partnerships, and the encouragement that comes from seeing so many invested in providing opportunities outside the school hours to our future generations.  We look forward to building these partnerships for greater impact.

A big thank you to the conference organizers and sponsors including Amy Adkins from the San Francisco Unified School District for this worthwhile day of learning.  It is a beautiful thing to see so many educators striving to improve their own practices and provide more opportunities for their students.

Shannon Burns
Volunteer and Program Manager