The Game Plan Has Changed, Our Commitment Has Not
Dear Members, Partners, and Friends,
Our team has spent a lot of time over the past few weeks thinking about how we move through this unprecedented situation, and then forward as a community. Before COVID-19, we were full steam ahead carrying out the Game On Philly! Plan with our members, partners, and other sports-based youth development stakeholders. And then everything came to a screeching halt.
Considering the daunting number of unknowns, we are focused on what we do know
QUESTIONS OF QUALITY with Dr. Tiffany Berry, the Claremont Evaluation Center
Dr. Tiffany Berry received her PhD from Claremont Graduate University in Developmental Psychology & Evaluation, specializing in the development of intrinsic motivation among youth who participate in after-school programs.
Strengthening the Sports-Based Youth Development Sector with Measurement and Evaluation
PYSC firmly believes in the importance of measuring what you do. We expect our members to always work towards better evaluation methods, and we speak with our members about their program goals and outcomes and how they track progress. Our partners at Temple University’s School of Sport, Hospitality, and Tourism Management have shared their expertise in program evaluation with our members regularly, even helping develop logic models to be sure a program is producing the desired results.
Quarterly Meeting: Growing Your Program
On Wednesday PYSC hosted their last Quarterly Meeting of 2018 titled Growing Your Program. Heather McDanel, founder of Students Run Philly Style and Amethyst Consulting, led the discussion. We began with the reasons we all came to a discussion about growth and scale, and found many common themes:
Fall at PYSC
Members had a busy fall at PYSC, starting with our Quarterly Meeting in September discussing data in sports-based youth development organizations. We were joined by Gulal Nakati of Philadelphia’s Citywide Out-of-School Time Initiative and by Gareth Jones of Temple University’s School of Sport, Tourism, and Hospitality Management.
PYSC Honored at US Open Squash Championships
SquashSmarts presented the 2018 Distinguished Youth Service Award to Beth Devine, Executive Director of PYSC, and Ann Marie and Terry Horner of the Horner Foundation on October 8th at the US.
Task Force on Sports-Based Youth Development Report Launch with Mayor Kenney
On June 27th PYSC stood with Mayor Kenney to announce the Game On Philly! campaign aimed to create quality sports-based youth development programs accessible to all of Philadelphia’s young people.
Data Pilot for 2016-2017 Program Year
PYSC is committed to supporting research to prove impact. We launched a pilot project in data collection this year to see who PYSC Member organizations are serving.
Members Attend Philadelphia Coaches Conference
PYSC members had the opportunity to attend the 4th Annual Coaches Conference on Tuesday, May 15th at the Palestra. The annual “for coaches by coaches” event was highlighted by keynote speakers Mike Sielski, a sports columnist who offered an interesting take on coaching and perspective; and Crista Samaras, founder of Brave Enterprises who offered exercises on building confidence. Panels and breakout sessions allowed the more than 150 coaches in attendance to explore specific professional development content, such as the "Thinking Outside the Box" panel featuring long-time friend of
Members Leadership Summit
PYSC hosted a Leadership Summit on April 23rd and 24th, exploring leading with a value-centered culture at the foundation of all you do. Pam Herath of Strive: How You Lead Matters facilitated the summit, using their collection of research on motivation, energy, and communication. The Summit included an in-depth personal exploration to see where we have strengths as leaders and where we may need to build skills.