 Good afternoon. I'm Holly Morehouse, executive director of Ramon After School, and I'd like to thank all of you for being here today. This week, communities across the nation have been participating in Lights On After School. Launched in October 2000, Lights On After School is a celebration, nationwide celebration of after school and summer programs and their vital role in the lives of children, youth, and families. Today, at this moment, we are celebrating here in Vermont as well. We're celebrating today because after school programs offer a better way to serve our youth. Decades of research demonstrate the benefits of after school and summer programs for youth of all ages. Studies show that children and youth in after school programs attend school more often, get better grades, and are more likely to graduate. We're celebrating here today because after school programs allow us to better support Vermont's families. After school programs are places where children and youth go every day after school for at least 12 hours a week and then during the day over the summer when their parents are at work. More than 8 in 10 Vermont parents say after school and summer programs help them keep their jobs and give them peace of mind, and 85 percent of Vermont parents are satisfied with their child's after school program. We are celebrating here today because after school programs strengthen Vermont's future workforce. After school and summer programs benefit our older youth, especially in our small rural communities, by providing important job opportunities to work as staff and counselors. Quality after school and summer programs also allow youth to build important workplace skills, explore a variety of interests and career options, and expand their pathways for training and post-secondary education. We are celebrating here today because after school programs in Vermont put youth at the center. Young people want and need what we all want and need. Opportunities to connect, to belong, to hang out with friends, learn new things, be engaged in the community and have their voices heard. Quality after school and summer programs are youth driven. They provide opportunities for authentic and meaningful youth engagement and they value youth as essential contributors to help make decisions. We are celebrating here today because the power that is created when Vermonters come together. We know that there is work yet to be done to make sure that all children and youth in Vermont have access to quality after school and summer learning programs. According to data in the 2020 America After 3 p.m. report, one in four Vermont youth who want to participate in a summer program do not yet have access and 39% who would like to be in after school do not have access to an after school program. We are responding. This very morning Vermonters from across the state came together for the first ever universal after school and summer summit. We talked about what it will take to expand programming, including staffing and leadership, equity and inclusion, transportation, training and quality standards. And we talked about how to do this together in collaboration across sectors with our state administration through communities with towns with schools and in partnership with youth. Finally we are celebrating today because of the tremendous leadership in our state. We are fortunate to have some big after school superheroes in Vermont. I would like to thank Governor Scott for being the first governor in the nation to set a goal to provide universal after school and the members of Vermont's universal after school task force for getting that work started. I would like to thank our congressional delegation and Senator Sanders for his long standing unwavering support for after school and summer programs and for his tenacity in DC for making sure there are federal funds in place to create these important opportunities for our children and youth. I want to acknowledge the more than 80 young people who have served on our statewide youth advisory groups over the last two years offering their input guidance and recommendations for how to strengthen youth voice in our state and how to better understand how we can best meet the most pressing needs of our youth. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the governor's cross agency summer enrichment team and partnership with Senator Sanders office on the recent summer matters initiative. Knowing that summer 2021 was going to be an important time for Vermont's youth to reengage, connect and learn. Communities and youth serving organizations across the state responded to the challenge to make sure that summer 2021 would look different and would be able to offer more for our children and youth. Through the summer matters grants we're able to award 3.4 million dollars to 93 summer programs collectively serving 12,877 children and youth adding 238 weeks of summer programming and providing 492 jobs for high school and college age youth. This effort showed us that we can do this. We can set a goal to create more after school and summer opportunities for children and youth no matter where they live in Vermont. We can make them affordable, we can make them accessible and we can make sure that every young person has experiences full of adventure, connection, exploration and choice. So thank you this week especially to the many many after school and summer program providers and staff all across Vermont who show up every day to create these amazing opportunities so that Vermont's children and youth can be active, engaged, connected and heard. I would now like to thank and introduce Governor Phil Scott and thank him for his leadership and helping to turn the lights on after school in Vermont. Good afternoon everyone and thank you Holly. It's great to be here today with Senator Sanders, Deputy Secretary Boucher, Holly again and many many legislators that are here to celebrate our after school and summer programs. I also understand our teacher the year, Karen McCalla is here. Karen, thank you for all you do and congratulations. It's also good to have so many from the virtual summit here this morning, live streaming for this event. My state of the state address back in January of 2020, which by the way seems like about 10 years ago, I laid out my vision for a system of after school and summer programming that would support our children and youth by giving them the opportunity to explore new interests, develop skills, make new friends and be inspired by trusted adults in a safe and healthy environment. I also wanted to make sure we supported our families having options available for every child statewide so that parents know their children are safe while they're at work. To do this, we know we need to rely on partnerships, partnerships between our school districts, nonprofits, municipalities and private providers who can create those much needed spaces. And there's a role for the state and federal government to support this work as well, obviously. To be successful, we understand the importance of listening to the voices of Vermont's youth to be truly creative in the programs they are interested in. No one could have predicted the pandemic and the impact it would have on our lives and the lives of our kids. After a year of isolation, this past summer, my team was able to partner with Senator Sanders in Vermont After School to build the Summer Matters program. I always shared this data earlier, but I wanted to underscore some of the points. $3.4 million to 93 programs serving 12,877 children and youth, adding 238 weeks of summer programming with 3,000 kids served over through our 21st century comprehensive community learning center programs and 492 high school and college students employed. I couldn't be prouder of the interagency team that worked incredibly hard to create these grants in such record time. The school districts have stepped up to support their students and of the summer programs that stress the limits to serve more kids in creative ways and we'll be hearing more about a couple of those programs shortly. Our state kept the lights on for Vermont's youth after a time of darkness when we knew many were struggling and we should be proud of this summer initiative which became a model for so many other states. We're also here today to issue another call to action as we look to the future. A future that will require continued partnerships. Today I signed an executive order calling for the creation of the Vermont Interagency Afterschool Youth Task Force. Building on the work from this past summer, the task force is charged with continued development of a statewide system with choices and opportunities for our youth from kindergarten all the way through high school. We need to build on what we already know works and make it stronger making sure any Vermont kid who wants it has options for after school in summer time. So today using funds that Senator Sanders and our congressional delegation secured the agency of education will work with Vermont after school and our task force to stand up another program for the 2022 to 2023 school year that reduces gaps in our current system details on what what that looks like will be coming in the near future. Our hope is that will this will be part of a multi-year effort to move us towards true universal after school for all kids that looks at the future with input from our youth and now it's my pleasure to turn it over to Senator Sanders who along with his team because we all have to have support and team we don't do this alone has made this incredible opportunity a reality. Let me let me thank Governor Scott and Holly for their great work and let me thank the young people for willing to get involved to help us shape programs that are relevant to young people sometimes when we get a little bit older we forget what it's like to be 16 or 17. So you know that a little bit better than we do and we thank you for your participation. It is no great secret that as a nation we are far behind many other countries in how we treat our children until recently we have had the highest rate of child poverty of almost any major country on earth. I have to say that I think our childcare system is dysfunctional and we have had only as a nation scattered after school programs but I think what Governor Scott and what Holly has said and what everybody knows is when we talk about the needs of children and when we talk about the needs of children's parents we have got to understand that after school and summer programs are an integral part of what we should be doing for our kids and I remember way back when Governor Scott mentioned the last few years have seemed like they're an eternity a couple of hundred years ago and I was mayor of Burlington. One of the first things we did is we brought parents together that's what we did and we said what do you think we should be doing in the city of Burlington for the kids after school programs childcare programs teenage programs and we did and it was true then and it is true today if we want our kids to be healthy happy well educated able to go out in the world and be productive that's what we have to do for them and I am very happy that in the last year we have begun to make some significant progress I think in addressing the needs of our kids and as a result of the American Rescue Plan we were able to bring in this state a 71 million dollars over a three-year period for summer programs and for after-school programs and as the governor indicated and Holly mentioned they've had a real impact and allowing thousands of young people to enjoy their summers to work to play hundreds of new jobs were created for the kids which is very very important so I think the message of today is not complicated is that for kids school may end at two or three o'clock in the afternoon but it is important that they still have an opportunity to be in safe constructive environments not only for the kids but for the appearance as well I have never understood if mama's working and dad is working and school ends at 2 30 in the afternoon what we do with the kids you need strong after-school programs and I think we are making progress in the state and hopefully in the country as well in doing that and I would hope that college students and young people in general are prepared to jump into these programs to help us give the kids the kind of exciting after-school programs challenging after-school programs that they need and similarly with summer programs especially during the COVID period I remember we did a virtual town hall with with many many kids throughout the state of Vermont and it was really something to kids to talk about what isolation had done to them and the mental health challenges that they were facing and I know the governor feels strongly about it as I do and I think as we all do that we wanted to make sure especially during COVID that we had the kind of vital and vibrant summer programs that allow these kids to begin to once again make contact with their friends and do the social activities that young kids want to do so I think in the state of Vermont we are making progress I think in the nation we are making progress and I would just say right now I think all of you aware there's all kinds of turmoil in DC but at the end of the day I want to say to the parents in the state of Vermont the hope is and I believe we will succeed in making pre-K programs for three and four-year-olds universal and free as that governor that means that means that every kid in the state of Vermont three or four-year olds will be able to go to free universal public education and what that means for parents and for the kids it's an extraordinary step forward and we're also planning to put some three or four hundred billion dollars into improving childcare so that no working family pays more than seven percent of their household income for childcare right now in Vermont's about $15,000 a person for childcare for a kid so if your family of sixty thousand that's twenty five percent of your income we got to do a lot better than that so bottom line is here in the state of Vermont I just want to thank all those who've been involved the young people who have been involved we are making progress we still have a long way to go and I look forward as senator from Vermont to do my best to make sure that we have the funding available to do what has to be done thank you you know as the governor indicated we don't succeed without strong staff and let me thank Heather Boucher deputy the secretary of education for her work thank you senator Sanders and good afternoon it's a pleasure to be here with you all to celebrate our success with summer matters and Vermont's future plans for universal afterschool summer programming as you've heard these programs are the natural extension of the school day involving both inside and outside activities friends and fun and important learning outside the classroom I wanted to note how this work all fits squarely within Vermont's education recovery plan you may recall it in preparation for turning toward recovery from the pandemic the agency of education launched a recovery planning initiative to guide districts and schools with addressing the impact of COVID-19 on students we focused on three areas student engagement social emotional learning and well-being and academics of course summer matters was designed to address the first area helping kids become re-engaged within their communities after several months of necessary pandemic management as you've heard in addition to the compelling numbers that Governor Scott and Holly noted I want to highlight our success and ensuring Vermont's kids had equitable access to these engaging opportunities we were able to fund several summer programs around the state allowing for more locations and expansion of slots in looking at the map of offerings it was clear that there was something for nearly every region or county in the state in addition we worked hard to make sure programs could offer slots to kids who might not have previously been able to access summer programs including those with special needs or whose families had limited resources and our data show we were successful in that goal as well finally I want to reiterate the incredible partnerships as has been noted that it takes to achieve universal after-school and summer programming statewide I thank Governor Scott for noting the work of the summer matters workgroup I'm grateful to have been part of that team and I look forward to continuing with that work in my role and also I wanted to give a shout out to our educators as well many districts and schools partnered with local community programs including some funded through summer matters grants to offer full-day enrichment experiences this past summer in addition as of mid-october more than 90% of our school districts signal that they have used or are planning to use their local ESSER dollars on after-school and summer programming and I just think that goes to show how committed we are as a state to really making sure we do this right I'm proud of the fact that we're all in this together working towards a common goal that keeps kids at the center with this collaborative spirit and solid working partnerships across sectors both at the state interagency level and on the ground at the local level I know we're going to be able to achieve our shared vision for ensuring all Vermont's children and youth have excellent opportunities for high quality and fun after-school programs for summer enrichment and skill building experiences and for paid work thank you I'll now turn it back over to Holly to lead us to the next part of the agenda and I just wanted to say a quick hi to Karen because I didn't get to say hi to her and she is indeed our teacher of the year for 2021 thank you all I want to pause for a moment and make sure everyone understands what really happens in after-school and summer programs because if you haven't visited one lately you might be surprised these programs really are partnerships right they're created to deliver and expand opportunities for youth across town schools community and profits and youth-serving organizations the variety of programs and opportunities that have been created this summer and through after-school is really impressive from arts and drama to engineering and tinkering to outdoor wilderness skills I mean literally making lip balm and setting starting fires and working with horses building drones programming them flying them exploring lakes rivers and mountains writing dancing reading playing computer science and more really really amazing opportunities we are fortunate to have with us today the directors of two of these amazing programs along with a couple of young people who participated this summer I'd like to introduce first Ronnie Basson the executive director of remote works for women and Amelia Garland who is one of their youth participants they'll be followed by Karen McCalla the executive director of the Rutland Mint and Rowan Williams also a youth participant down there Ronnie what an exciting day to be here Vermont works for women promotes economic justice by advancing gender equity and supporting women and youth across Vermont for over 30 years thanks to generous summer matters funding we were able to provide our Rosie's girls summer camp for six weeks in six different communities across Vermont and supported over 60 middle school girls and gender non-conforming youth all free of charge our summer camps provided necessary opportunities for engagement amongst participants exploring new careers and unique activities that allowed them to learn a new skill through our hands-on learning model paired with our social emotional curriculum our Rosie's girls summer and after-school programs helped to break down gender stereotypes and inspire youth even through these challenging times we are thankful for our partnership with Vermont after-school that allowed our staff to best support youth in building their competent confidence learning new skills and overall supporting their passions as they grow we want to thank Governor Scott and your administration senator Sanders and all your work agency of education and most importantly Vermont after-school for your partnership we also know that the best examples of summer impact come from those who experienced them firsthand and with that I am honored to introduce one of our Rosie's girls camp participants from our berry program Amelia joins us as a seventh grader from U32 from East Montpelier and we are going to hear some of her experience before she actually jets back to help class right after this last summer at Rosie's girls we built birdhouses and metal wind chimes we also play games to get to know each other like big wing blows and pipeline one thing I enjoyed is that we didn't have to sing camp socks we also learned about growth mindset which is believing we can reach our goals even if we make mistakes and we learned about extra vision which is when we focus on what's inside of a person not the outside we also used challenge by choice to remember to try new things and step out of our comfort zones on the last day of camp we celebrated with sprinkler water balloons and popsicles I learned a lot of Rosie's girls and would recommend it to my friends and the executive director of the men the men opened five years ago and we have always had the goal to have a kids and family makerspace but it was not able to happen until this summer when we were able to take advantage of the summer matters for all grant we created something called the boiler where steam happens you get what I did there thank you so all focused on steam learning science technology engineering arts and math for kids and families age 3 to 18 so it's filled with tools and equipment and the staffing support from the summer manage for all grant allowed us to offer an average of three programs a week for kids in that age range including two weeks of summer camp which we had not been able to do before we also started what's called the boiler bus which sounds fancy but it's just my van but we packed the van with some really cool tools and equipment and send our high quality programming on the move to where kids were this summer so we were out in a public libraries recreation programs child care centers all places where the kids were to address some equity issues regarding programming and transportation and so post summer matters for all grant we've been able to hire education coordinator which is really exciting so we're continuing this programming right on through we have steam powered Saturdays where we do programming for that age group and a full menu of boiler programs that we're offering to schools child care centers and public libraries so without this grant we would not have been able to put any of that together since it's been a real blessing we're also really excited just this month we're starting to roll out some really high quality professional development to southwestern Vermont teachers around steam learning so it's been a wonderful grant thank you so much it's been transformative for us and then I'm going to introduce Rowan who is an amazing summer participant at the minute my name is Rowan and I took classes at the minute over this summer I like that they took something like stem I know I and a lot of other kids wouldn't find fun and switched it around and made it fun I wasn't interested in stem at all before I took classes at the minute and I hadn't done anything like them in before in one class we made hoverboards that was my favorite class because we got to make something together I would love for them to continue to do these classes in the future so I and other kids can have these experiences and benefit from them in the future Rowan and Amelia Ronnie and Karen a governor and senator we have a special display there's a big reveal coming all in the spirit of turning lights on after school all throughout the state the mint maker space worked on this creation sculpture unveiling gear based thing I'm a Bob so thanks stem and steam and creativity drum roll please thank you there is more governor Scott can tell she's teacher of the year all right hold your breath to do that remember what I said up front about our superheroes governor Scott senator Sanders Amelia and Rowan would like to present to you superhero afterschool superhero capes you can wear them this weekend for Halloween you can wear them for the next five years we want to thank you for the all that you have done and all that you are still doing on behalf of Vermont's children and youth last segment I'd like to acknowledge the work of two important groups as I said earlier we have the next iteration of our statewide youth advisory group that includes youth ages eight 12 to 18 from all across Vermont this group will be important collaborators in our state's effort to achieve universal afterschool in summer and I'd also like to acknowledge the universal afterschool task force that was convened in 2020 by the legislature that helped to lay the groundwork to get us to where we are today representative pale is senator Parchek he's still in committee oh there he's hiding in the back you could join us up here please thank you I'm gonna start with the youth because as senator Sanders said nobody knows better than a teenager living in Vermont what it is like to be a teenager living in Vermont and youth voice is powerful across the nation in the world we have seen our young people speak out about gun violence climate change and racial justice we have seen young people's well-being and mental health significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and we're celebrating today that state and federal leaders are responding with unprecedented investment in afterschool and summer programs we also believe that our efforts cannot be about creating more programs for youth to truly support youth agency connection and hope for the future our efforts need to be about creating more programs with our youth I'm excited to have here today two young people who have come forward to serve on the statewide youth advisory group to help inform a deeper understanding of the potential barriers and challenges to accessing afterschool and summer programs for youth across our state we've asked abalina circle and Hiba Ali to share a few words on what universal afterschool and summer would mean to them and their peers my name is abalina circle I'm a 17-year-old student from the Burlington school district and I know that universal afterschool programs are incredibly important and should always be prioritized I should start this off by saying that child care is a necessity for many families and their children regardless of background or finance their financial situation but finding safe and affordable child care can be especially difficult for lower income households single parents new Americans and members of marginalized communities as an elementary schooler I was fortunate enough to attend two afterschool programs Burlington kids at integrated arts academy and the boys and girls club I attended both programs from second through fifth grade and I have extremely fond memories of the activities we did the members of the staff who were there to support us and the program as a whole I was also employed by Burlington kids during the 2020 to 2021 school year where I worked with students of all ages as an afterschool counselor I was fortunate enough to gain experience working hands-on with students planning out activities and snacks for the week and solving interpersonal problems with the students it was a fantastic and fulfilling experience and I felt like I was making a huge difference in the lives of the students I worked with and in the community as a whole providing free or reduced costs afterschool programs would mean a lot to families not only in my community but in ones all over Vermont it would mean the young children wouldn't have to become latchkey kids at two early of an age it would mean that older siblings wouldn't have to assume a parental role that they cannot and are not meant to fill specific a specific example of this parentification that I can recall was with a close friend of mine she's only a junior in high school that has to care for her two siblings because her family cannot afford the program at her sibling school this is not only an emotional burden but it causes her to fall behind in her studies and makes it significantly harder to take care of her own needs providing a program that all families can afford would level the playing field and ease the burden off the shoulders of loved ones of the students and that's why Universal afterschool is so important in this state thank you my name is Hiba Ali and I'm 17 from South Burlington as someone who is involved in several afterschool activities and other activities outside of school I believe that these activities are essential for my well-being and success for example I take part in several science related activities outside of school and these experiences are so important to me because they are something that I wouldn't have been able to experience in a school setting and it also allows me to think about what future careers I may want to pursue I'm also involved in other afterschool clubs like the community service club and the neuroscience club the community service club is especially important to me because it teaches me how to be a helpful member of society and give back to others I would like to make sure that other students have access to opportunities that support their development and well-being it is important to understand that all students have different interests and sometimes activities relating to those interests may not be offered at their school taking part in these new activities will introduce students to their passion and perhaps even their career path thank you for listening so senator Purchlich and representative Paella I hope you can see how important the work is that you helped get started the universal afterschool task force was created in 2020 by the legislature and worked throughout last winter and spring to develop recommendations on how to get this important work started theirs was not an easy task but their thoughtfulness through tough working through tough conversations your commitment to hearing from diverse voices and your understanding of the urgency to act now to do more for our children youth and families was extraordinary so thank you for your leadership and all your hard work and I would like to invite Hiba back and have a lean on toward two more superhero capes so we cannot fail with these leaders with these young voices we will not fail we will achieve universal afterschool and summer programs so mark this day October 29 2021 and follow us right for the next three four or five years as we build this system together I would like to thank all of our state leaders partners programs and youth for being here today our shared vision is bold moving towards universal afterschool and summer will require strong public private partnerships among the state schools businesses nonprofits and program providers we embrace our collective responsibility to ensure that all Vermont youth are safe healthy supported educated and engaged and we're up for that challenge we're up for that challenge together we are forging futures with Vermont youth we have a few minutes to take a few questions from the press we hope that you'll focus the questions on universal afterschool and summer and on youth and youth well-being staffing we're experiencing a staffing shortage as we know throughout the state what I'm excited about is this commitment the funding that's flowing in this direction will help us recruit more staff the conversations that we are planning on having with the new task force that the governor has established get at those structural issues how do we support more people moving into the field how do we support the training and conversations and how do we support livable wage and benefits for those who are working in this career which is not only enriching and empowering changing the lives of children and youth but also needs to be supported by a livable wage as you know Kelvin we have experienced this problem before COVID and the code COVID just exacerbated the situation we have a labor shortage in Vermont preview pre COVID we had the lowest unemployment rate in the country but when you look at number of jobs available and number of people on the enrolled in the unemployment program you saw that the the jobs exceeded the people that we had that were available that is true today and now as well so we hope by providing these programs first of all that we'll be able to tap into some of the universities and colleges as well high school students can also participate and we can build this out and keep them here and give them an important experience as well towards the next chapter in their lives so I think this works amongst everyone we just have to use our imagination creativity and bring people into the greatest state in the country if we can have all of the aspects of an education system that truly works for everyone that will bring in more family so it all works together but this is important step great there are no other questions thank you all so much for being here thank you for your support your interest in the issue and thank you to our leaders and thank you to our young people