May: Bringing The DAA Into Focus
Our May Coffee and Conversation event, “Bringing the DAA Into Focus”, set out to dig a little bit deeper into explaining what the Denver Afterschool Alliance (DAA) does, how we support the Out-of-School Time community and what we continue to do to help strengthen our relationship with Denver Public Schools. While we had a smaller crowd in attendance at this month’s event, the participants represented 10 different organizations and ranged in time served working with youth from 1 month to nearly 55 years!
The Denver Afterschool Alliance (DAA) is housed within the City and County of Denver’s Office of Children’s Affairs. The DAA builds the capacity of organizations, programs and professionals to provide a variety of high-quality afterschool and summer experiences for all Denver youth.
The Denver Afterschool Alliance Team includes:
Erma Cerda, DAA Outreach and Support Coordinator
Miranda Cook, DAAlearn Lead
Robin Kiggins, DPS Community Partnership Specialist
John Lewis, DPS Data and Quality Manager/DAA Quality Counts Network Lead
Lauren Mason, DPS Senior Manager, Operations & Strategic Partnerships
Lisa Mueller, DAAconnect Administrator
Jami Powell, DAA Quality Coach
Maxine Quintana, Out-of-School Time Director/Co-founder of the DAA
Kim Schulz, Associate Director of Strategy and Sustainability
Regan Suhay, DAAadvocate lead
The DAA takes an integrated approach to building the capacity of youth-serving organizations that includes our three lines of service:
DAAadvocate works alongside funders, policymakers, community leaders and afterschool providers to promote policies and practices that create more equitable outcomes for Denver youth and families. Through our advocacy efforts, we seek to ensure that the afterschool community has the financial support, resources and visibility it needs to provide a variety of quality programming for Denver youth.
Programs and efforts that fall under the DAAadvocate line of service include, but are not limited to:
The DAA Sustainability Coalition: Comprised of leaders from 12 Denver-based OST providers committed to providing no-cost quality programs, year-round programming to children and families in need.
Data and evaluation briefs and impacts reports are generated based on the data collected from OST organizations.
How can you support our advocacy efforts? PARTICPATE! Attend DAA events, workshops, complete surveys, and participate in our quality counts system, etc.
DAAlearn provides custom supports and learning opportunities that build the capacity of youth-serving organizations to improve program quality and integrate social, emotional, and academic learning into their structures and practices.
Programs and efforts that fall under the DAAlearn line of service include:
The Afterschool Incubator partners with local and national philanthropic funders, government agencies and youth-serving organizations to pilot innovative programs in Denver that enhance quality and build stronger, more emotionally intelligent afterschool organizations.
The SEAL Initiative
Healthy Lifestyles (in partnership with The YESS Institute)
Quality Counts builds the capacity of youth-serving organizations to improve and enhance program quality through custom supports and learning opportunities that meet the needs of all providers. We take an integrated approach to helping providers scale and sustain program quality over time.
Our program quality improvement system helps assess afterschool program quality and implement improvement plans designed to increase positive youth outcomes.
Easy-to-use tools and surveys help measure outcomes related to academic success; social emotional and academic learning; and positive program experiences.
The DAA Collective brings together all of Denver’s youth-serving professionals, from program staff to executive leaders, to share and learn from each other. The DAA Collective’s free professional learning and networking opportunities, which are part of the DAA’s suite of capacity building supports for providers, help grow, support and retain a stronger, more connected and informed afterschool workforce that has the power to serve all Denver’s youth.
The DAAlearn team is committed to building relationships with community providers and learning from you all want will best serve you. Participants engaged in a brain+storm activity where they shared topics they would like to engage in to support their individual, staff and organizational development. We will be using these suggestions as a road map for planning activities next school year.
Another way you can get involved is to join the DAA Collective Leadership team! Reach out to Miranda Cook or Erma Cerda for details!
DAAconnect unites the afterschool community around the power of quality youth programming through an information management system that helps providers more easily track and report on youth outcomes and a Youth Program Locator that connects families to quality afterschool programs.
Programs and efforts that fall under the DAAconnect line of service include:
DPS Community Partnerships:
Denver Public Schools works with partners who are committed to providing programs and services to support the diverse needs of our students. There are currently up to 500 community partners who serve DPS students through programs during and outside of school.
Check out the amazing slideshow created by Robin Kiggins, Community Partnership Specialist, that outlines the process and benefits of becoming a Community Partner HERE.
Resources handed out at event:
Summer 2024 Youth Programs Flyer
