THE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (LI) provides informal and formal educators with access to intensive professional development opportunities, which will enable them to provide higher quality and more coordinated services to children and youth. The three managing partners are
Program in Education, Afterschool and Resiliency (PEAR) at Harvard University and McLean Hospital, the
Children's Trauma Recovery Foundation (CTRF), and Boston Public Schools' Bridging the Gap program (BTG). As a way of broadening its range of offerings, LI partners with various agencies to provide course content. Additionally, LI collaborates with higher education institutions to begin to build the infrastructure to support degrees in OST Education. In order to be successful, LI:
- Offers courses and seminars that directly impact participants' educational attainment and/or career status (i.e. undergraduate credit, graduate credit, in-service credit, etc.).
- Provides affordable coursework to the widest audience possible.
- Focuses its efforts on those who will remain in the education field (teaching, out-of-school time, counselors, etc.) for at least 5 years.
- Utilizes a process to ensure that its offerings meet a specified quality standard.
- Refines its work through the collection of data and evaluation.
Currently, LI offers three courses. They are
Math Games;
Youth Arts for Social Change; and
Resiliency, Behavior Management and Mental Health in Afterschool and Summer Programs. All course adhere to the following criteria:
- Courses must address an area of need as identified by public schools, a barrier to learning as evidenced by credible research, or 21st Century Skills.
- Courses must be case-oriented, allowing participants to receive input and resources directly benefiting their programs/agencies.
- Courses must balance theory and practice in an interactive format.
- Presenters must be engaging and have extensive experience in the content area.
- Courses/Seminars must be at least 10 hours in length (preferably 30 hours).
The Leadership Institute is sponsored by
The Boston Foundation.
