The expanded learning workforce often includes young staff who are new to the professional world. These emerging professionals need tailored guidance to succeed and support students effectively. This workshop equips participants with strategies to create supportive environments, adapt leadership styles, and set clear expectations. Through collaborative discussions, you’ll share best practices and leave with a customizable staff manual designed specifically for young professionals.

Presented by:

Cori Ove, Project Specialist I, Expanded Learning, Sacramento County Office of Education

How does a field that represents such a diverse group of workers and organizations speak with one voice? This interactive session shares how Prosperity Initiative has made worker voice the foundation of its storytelling, using research, convening, and strategic alignment to build a shared narrative about what the youth-serving workforce needs. At the center of that story is a definition of job quality and worker wellbeing shaped by workers themselves. We'll walk through what has stayed consistent in our message over time, what has shifted, and how regular convening gives workers ongoing power to shape and correct the message. Participants will practice tools for turning worker input into shared messages, and you'll leave with a replicable convening structure and concrete practices for building narrative power in your own region.

Presented by:

Madison Holland, Executive Director, Prosperity Initiative

Erin Gutierrez, Founder, Calli Consulting

(workshop session summary coming soon)

Presented by:

Kourtney Andrada, Senior Director of School-Based Programs, Girls Inc.

AJ Frigillana, Workforce Development Program Manager, San Francisco Beacon Initiative

Sienna Stevenson, Senior Administrative Analyst, Strong Workforce Program, City College of San Francisco

At the heart of strong, authentic, equity-driven leadership is an unwavering commitment to self knowing and inner work. The identities, experiences, values, assumptions, and biases we carry shape how we understand others, make decisions, exercise power, navigate conflict, and create the conditions for belonging. Developing greater self-awareness allows leaders to recognize these influences and make more intentional choices about how they show up and the impact they have on others. Come explore self-awareness as an ongoing, equity-driven leadership practice. Participants will leave with practical strategies for translating greater self-awareness into everyday leadership choices that foster dignity, trust, belonging, and equity.

Presented by:

Zak McKenzie-Parpia, Director of Programs, California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC)

This interactive workshop equips program staff and trainers with a practical framework for closing the gap between staff training and real-world implementation. We'll unpack why trainings often fail to translate into lasting practice change, then work through a planning tool that builds coaching, feedback, and accountability structures directly into training design. Through small-group case studies and a hands-on worksheet, attendees will diagnose gaps in a current training initiative and leave with a customized action plan. We'll draw on BACR's own work building systems that move learning into practice — ensuring trainings are implemented and moving the needle on program quality through better-prepared staff. Takeaways include a reusable training-to-implementation checklist, coaching conversation starters, and strategies for sustaining quality after training ends.

Presented by:

Heather Speers, Program Manager, BACR

Samm McCary, Expanded Learning Training Director, BACR

Join a conversation about the emerging statewide Workforce Campaign and what it will take to strengthen California’s expanded learning workforce. We’ll ground the conversation in current workforce needs, introduce the campaign’s vision and strategies, and explore how efforts already underway across the field can connect and contribute to collective action. Together, participants will consider what it will take to advance the campaign, who needs to be involved, and how field leaders, funders, workforce partners, and others can leverage their roles, relationships, and networks to move the work forward.

Presented by:

Rebecca Goldberg, Impact Group Facilitator and Organization, Grantmakers for Education

Ruth Obel-Jorgenson, Founder and Consultant, Corazon Catalysts

This workshop will introduce NFF’s Full Cost framework, which aligns nonprofits & funders around what it takes to run effective programs, address resource disparities, & create strong nonprofits. NFF will highlight findings from 2 recent projects aimed at informing practices & policies that advance worker well-being & nonprofit resilience. The first researched the full cost of LA workforce development programs & identified key recommendations for the future of these programs. The second, The Heart of the Sector, is a report that documents the challenges & spotlights promising practices & strategies to invest in worker well-being.

NFF will facilitate dialogue on how these findings can be applied to participants’ organizations, opportunities & barriers within their own contexts. Participants will receive access to both reports as well as NFF’s full cost website, including a workbook & conversation guide to apply full cost approaches within their own organizations.

Presented by:

Alexandra Chan, Senior Director, Nonprofit Finance Fund

How do we build an expanded learning workforce pipeline that starts before someone enters the field and continues through leadership? This workshop shares a connected workforce strategy that creates multiple entry points and opportunities for growth—from a high school internship program that introduces students to expanded learning careers, to Summer of Joy’s cross-sector professional development summit, 1:1 coaching, enrichment training, and senior leader development. Participants will explore how these strategies work together to recruit new talent, expose young people to career pathways they may not otherwise consider, strengthen practice, develop leaders, and build organizational capacity. Through a presentation and facilitated discussion, participants will examine their own workforce pipeline, identify gaps and leverage points, and develop strategies for creating stronger connections between recruitment, professional learning, career advancement, and leadership development.

Presented by:

Dinan Guan, Director Student Impact, GPSN

Theo Ossei-Anto, Director, Employer Engagement, GPSN

This workshop equips Expanded Learning practitioners with practical strategies to develop and sustain youth workforce development programs that create meaningful career pathways in Expanded Learning and Early Childhood Education. Centered on the belief that preparing young people for future success takes all of us, the session explores how schools, community based organizations, Local Education Agencies, and youth can work together to create impactful work based learning opportunities.

Participants will explore strategies for building partnerships, leveraging existing resources, elevating youth voice, and creating equitable access to internships, apprenticeships, and other work based learning experiences. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to strengthen youth workforce opportunities that build leadership, workforce readiness, and clear pathways to post secondary education and meaningful careers.

Presented by:

Callista Galliher, Youth Workforce Initiative Coordinator, The Center (SCCSC)

Tamiece Bennett, Youth Workforce Initiative Admin Assistant, The Center (SCCSC)

Expanded learning staff show up every day for kids in their community, and earning a college degree shouldn't mean stepping away from that work. Rivet School takes an innovative approach: a competency-based AA and BA built around real life, with the support of a 1:1 coach for every student. In this session, we'll cover how Rivet School partners with expanded learning organizations, what competency-based education and flexible scheduling mean for staff who can't put their job on hold, and the pathways available, from teaching credentials to new leadership roles. Expect a presentation and panel discussion, grounded in real outcomes on retention and staff growth, featuring an expanded learning partner organization and a program graduate, plus time for your questions. You'll leave with a clear picture of what it takes to build a similar talent pipeline at your own organization, and how to start that conversation.

Presented by:

Dorothy Gray, Senior Partnership Lead, Rivet School

Shamonica Clark, Expanded Learning Program Manager, West Contra Costa Unified School District

In this session, representatives of the 3LN Workforce Development Network will share how its community of practice model addresses some of the most pressing workforce challenges in the expanded learning field. Irania Cespedes, Co-Lead of 3LN's third cohort, will walk you through 3LN's theory of change and program model. Virgtrese McGee and Jimmy Le, members of the second cohort, will share key takeaways and how their projects developed. Virgtrese's project focused on building transferable skills that prepare line staff to step into leadership roles. Jimmy's project focused on building staff data skills to refine operations and articulate impact. They will also lead activities that give participants a foundation for launching skill-building projects at their own organizations. We hope participants will walk away with clearer strategies for expanding their organization's capacity.

Presented by:

Irania Cespedes, Director of People Operations & Implementation, Woodcraft Rangers / 3LN

Jimmy Le, Beacon Director at Francisco Middle School, Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center / 3LN

Virgtrese Mcgee, High School Program Manager, Girls Inc. of Alameda County / 3LN

(workshop session summary coming soon)

Presented by:

Vincent Arroyo, Program Manager, CalSAC

Jessica Baker, Director, Expanded Learning Programs, Saratoga Union School District