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Homepage >The QSA Tool: Get Started with Your Self-Assessment! >Staffing/Professional Development
Staffing/Professional Development
A quality program recruits, hires, and develops diverse staff members who understand, value, and promote high-quality practices.
MORE ON STAFFING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
A quality program employs staff members who are properly equipped with the academic and experiential knowledge needed to fulfill their job requirements. Program leaders have ongoing staff recruitment and development plans to attract and retain high-quality staff. Staff should always have required credentials and licenses. Program leadership understands the value of reaching beyond mandatory training requirements to provide staff with additional tools and knowledge. Professional development opportunities are frequent and offer a variety of ways for practitioners to bolster their skills, and ultimately, lead to improved program performance.
Click here to fill out the Staffing/Professional Development section of the QSA Tool electronically.
Zooming In
For definitions of what each quality indicator might look like at performance levels 1-4, click here.
Taking Action
Program Element |
Quality Indicator |
Perf. Level |
Timeline for Improvement and Improvement Steps |
Person(s) Responsible |
Resources Needed |
Staffing/ Professional Development |
#7 *Provides positive working conditions for staff and appropriate supervision, support, and feedback. |
1 |
Right Now |
1. Schedule meetings for Site Director and each staff member to identify strengths, needs, gaps, and common themes.
2. Schedule staff meeting for Site Director to share findings from individual meetings.
3. Schedule a group training designed to build skills and establish a common vision and sense of community. |
1. Site Director: Anne Johnson
2. Executive Director: Reena Singh
3. Local Principal: Carlos Rivera
4. Staff Members: Eddie Rivera and Jessica Rubenstein |
1. Staff job descriptions
2. Training Facilitator
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This Year |
1. Create a clear staff development plan. Identify in-house and external training resources to support the plan.
2. Attend staff trainings throughout the program year.
3. Hold meeting every three months for Site Director and each staff member to assess progress and growth and check in on what is working and what needs to be in place to support their professional development.
4. Make job descriptions available and accessible. |
Next Year |
1. Hold staff retreat to revisit goals, celebrate progress, and identify training areas of priority for the current program year.
2. Hold an orientation for new and returning staff members with the goals of building community, sharing expectations, agreeing on a training plan and quality standards, and establishing a shared vision.
3. Create opportunities for staff members to showcase their work through peer learning sessions. Accomplishments will be acknowledged with announcements and awards. |
 Tips for Success
Here are some strategies to maximizing staff professional development opportunities:
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For trainings that are required by regulation or by program leadership, ensure staff are informed of purpose and content of the training prior to it happening and how it links to program improvement goals.
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Have at least two staff members participate in most professional development opportunities, including supervisors when possible. This increases institutional knowledge and ability to share learnings with others in the program.
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Create a system to track the time and content of staff members’ professional development.
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Create an annual professional development plan for each staff member and ensure resources for professional development are set aside in the program budget.
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 Try This!
“Each One, Teach One”
To maximize investment in staff participation at professional conferences, workshops, networking events, and other forums that highlight best practice in the field, ask staff to bring back information and resources gathered at these events. Give them time to share what they have learned with their colleagues one-on-one and during regular staff meetings. This will save both time and money, and everyone will benefit from events attended by any staff member. |
 SPOTLIGHT
Building Capacity through Professional Development
Loretta McCormick, Program Manager, Creating Rural Opportunities Partnership Program Our 21st Century Community Learning Center program, Creating Rural Opportunities Partnership Program (CROP), serves 16 school districts in three counties in rural upstate New York. Geographically it is difficult, if not impossible, to have afterschool staff, school staff, community members and parents from each of the sites attend one or several sessions to complete the NYSAN QSA Tool; therefore, we assign one element from the QSA Tool to be completed each month at the different sites. In addition, each site holds its own quarterly site management meeting inviting any and all key players to participate, including the school superintendent, principal, other school personnel, parents, community members and all afterschool program staff as well as our high school Peer Tutors.
Completing the QSA Tool in this manner allows each individual site to highlight its strengths and to identify areas that need to be strengthened. Once each site completes the assigned element, the results from all sites are compiled by our program manager and director. The three major areas identified as needing to be strengthened across all sites are then addressed at our biannual, all-staff development trainings that focus on concrete activities/ideas to address and strengthen specific program areas. |
Research, Tools and Templates, and Resources
Research
Out-of-School Time Policy and Practice: Unpacking Youth Work Practice, Forum for Youth Investment Research brief on many aspects of working with youth
Tools and Templates
Site Coordinator Sample Job Description, Bay Area Partnership for Children and Youth
Positive Youth Development Resource Manual, Assets Coming Together (A.C.T.) for Youth Manual for providing details training for staff on youth development principles and practices
Resources
Characteristics of High Impact Staff, Developed by the Children’s Aid Society, National Technical Assistance Center for Community Schools (adapted from High Performing Teams)
Chart outlining key skills needed to be effective staff, as well as ways of identifying these skills.
Core Competencies for Youth Work Professionals, NYC Department of Youth and Community Development Resource designed to raise the capacity of youth-serving organizations and staff to serve their participants more effectively; competencies are designed to be used as a tool to guide the professional development of the youth work professional and not as a barrier for entry into the field
Identifying Staffing Needs and Recruiting Qualified After-School Staff, The After-School Corporation Resource presenting promising practices for identifying and recruiting qualified staff
Recruiting and Training Staff for Out-of-School Time Programs, Citizen Schools Resource brief outlining key strategies for staff recruitment and training
Training New After-School Volunteers, Corporation for National and Community Service Website with information about how to train new volunteers
School Age Care Credential Competencies for After School Professionals, AfterSchool Works! New York
Outlines a number of competencies for afterschool professionals which can be used in a number of ways, including professional development planning
SkillPath Seminars
Offers seminars on a wide variety of management and education topics. There is a fee to attend.
Workforce Planning Process, Cornerstones for Kids Website offering detailed information on workforce planning and development for social service agencies
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