QUALITYstarsNY attended the 2025 Empower Youth Success event, hosted annually by the New York State Network for Youth Success in Albany, NY. The event offers a space for educators to network and engage in high-quality learning and development that supports New York’s youth. Over four days, attendees had the opportunity to participate in three conferences: Community Schools Resilience & Equity, School’s Out, Make it Count!, and 21st Century Community Learning Center. Community schools, along with afterschool and expanded learning programs in attendance engaged in various trainings focused on providing quality care and education to the state’s early childhood and school-age youth. Sessions explored topics such as the Core Body of Knowledge areas, action plan development, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) resources. We were happy to connect with some of our state partners, including the Early Care and Learning Council, NYS Office of Children and Family Services, and fellow NY Early Childhood Professional Development Institute initiative, New York Works for Children, who led presentations at the event.
Looking ahead, QUALITYstarsNY is excited about the potential to broaden our support to school-age programs. In 2022, we launched a School-Age Pilot, where a small cohort of programs serving school-age children in an after-school setting were invited to participate in a tailored Quality Improvement Process for nine months and share feedback about their experience. Their participation continues to inform our planning around growing and individualizing support for programs across New York State.
QUALITYstarsNY looks forward to attending future events like the Empower Youth Success conference and continuing to work to expand our services to school-age programs.
