By advocating for policies that strengthen afterschool programming and helping local programs build their capacity to provide high-quality activities and experiences to youth, the Iowa Afterschool Alliance supports afterschool programs at both a systemic and individual level.

Our Work

Professional Development

The Iowa Afterschool Alliance offers a variety of training that can be tailored to your program’s needs. If you are interested in any of the training below or have an idea you’d like to discuss, please contact Elva Griffin at egriffin@iowaafterschoolalliance.org.

Trainings are available in the following categories. Click the category to jump to that section.

Our Work

STEM

An Introduction to Dimensions of Success (DoS)

This session will introduce you to the Dimensions of Success – twelve indicators of high-quality STEM activities and a lesson planning tool that will transform your STEM programming.

Dimensions of Success 2.0

Looking for more training on Dimensions of Success? This session will take a deeper dive into the DoS tool and focus on how to implement the tool in your lesson planning and activity facilitation.

Youth Development in STEM

This session will focus on youth development in STEM and bringing more youth voice into programming. Using the Dimensions of Success tool, participants will discuss strategies to engage and empower students through STEM activities and leave with sample lesson plans.

Activity Engagement and Reflection in STEM

This workshop will provide strategies and techniques for developing purposeful STEM activities and learning goals, and building in time for meaningful reflection throughout your activity. This workshop is a deep dive into specific domains of the Dimensions of Success tool, completion of the intro level DoS workshop is recommended as a prerequisite.

Afterschool and Summer Program Quality

An Overview of the Iowa Afterschool Alliance (IAA) Quality Standards

Dig into the Iowa Afterschool Alliance’s (IAA) quality standards through this interactive and informative training! Focusing on the IAA’s 10 quality standards:

Positive Human Relationships
Appropriate Indoor and Outdoor Environments
Effective Programming
Strong Partnerships
Effective Administration
Effective Staffing and Professional Development
Youth Development Principles and Practices
Outcome Measurement
Fiscal Management
Advocacy

Participants will get a well-rounded idea of how a quality program functions and what steps they must take to get there.

Facilitating Engagement

Do you struggle to facilitate an advisory group – either adult or youth? This workshop will give you the skills necessary to facilitate engagement of individuals in a group through interactive approaches to getting people to participate in discussions, feel like they are a part of something important, and go above and beyond the call of duty.

Strategic Planning 101

This training is intended to provide an overview of the strategic planning process. It covers all topics including:

programming
governance
sustainability
infrastructure
external relationships
communications

Participants will learn how to facilitate a process that engages their stakeholders and creates a well-developed plan that is executable and easily communicated internally and externally.

Quality

STEM

Sustainability

The Grant’s Over: Now What?

Now that that big grant is gone, what do you do? All organizations struggle with sustainability of effort and this workshop is designed to make the process more manageable and ultimately successful! The workshop will utilize the following modules:

Building a Sustainable Initiative
Developing a Vision and Results Orientation
Creating a Strategic Financing Plan
Building Organizational Capacity and
Community Support
Developing and Writing the Plan

Ideally a multi-day course, participants will leave the session with an outline for a good, executable sustainability plan for
their program.

Sustainabilty

Evaluation

Evaluating for Impact

Are you tracking numbers and not doing much else? This workshop will arm you with the tools you need to effectively track impact data that matters through case studies and discussion.

Storytelling through Data

So you’ve got data, but you’re not sure what its saying about your program. This workshop will lead you through a process that identifies which stories can be shared and what data best tells that story. The participant will come out of this workshop with a clear plan for better telling your story through data.

Evaluation

Funding and Budgets

Fiscal Management for Nonprofits

This workshop focuses on the basics of good fiscal management for nonprofits. From spreadsheets to communicating your bottom line, this workshop will help you better understand what techniques work best for tracking multiple funding sources, creating and tracking budgets, and planning for unexpected situations.

Grant Writing for Youth-Serving Programs

This workshop will cover all the basics of effective grant writing, including searching for the perfect funder, developing a relationship with funders, writing the grant, and maintaining strong relationships with your funders.

Funding

Advocacy and Communications

Promoting Your Program – A Guide to Communications

From working with media to developing your “elevator speech,” this training helps you to understand the many modes of communication available to you, how best to utilize them, and strategies for making the most out of communication methods. This training is extensive, and is best facilitated over several days. Can be condensed into a shorter block of training.

Advocacy in the Real World

Looking to get more involved in advocacy but not sure where to start? Join the Iowa Afterschool Alliance to learn more about the legislative process, issues affecting afterschool, and how to be a champion for youth. Participants will leave with concrete actions they can take to advocate for the issues they care about and plenty of resources to help along the way.

Advocacy

IAA Leadership Series

Iowa Afterschool Alliance created an in-depth 5-month leadership series designed to help program leaders develop the self-awareness and skills needed to successfully grow, retain, and inspire a team that provides excellent service and meets unique the needs of youth and families in your community. This program is designed for those in leadership positions, is a limited cohort of participants, and is offered annually in January - May.

Leadership