Project: CriticalHours.ca
Client: Ottawa Child & Youth Initiative, Healthy Kids Community Challenge, Crime Prevention Ottawa
Role: Project coordination/management, research, mockup, web design, presentation facilitation and training, activity handbook, illustrative icons.
Collaborated with: Clinicians, research, program managers, executive directors, City of Ottawa policy-makers, other stakeholders
Context: Over the last decade, we have seen a significant rise in the number and importance of after-school programs, or “Homework Clubs,” for elementary and middle-school aged children. These programs fill the critical hours between when children and youth finish school, and the end of their parents’ work day. They rest on three foundational pillars which are based in best practice and are measures by which we can evaluate their success.
Challenge: Design a way for frontline workers of critical-hours programs to assist in easily integrating quality, skill-building activities into their programming.
Target: For use by supervisors to train front-line staff on aspects of 3 pillars to integrate into programming, with appeal to directors and mangers of child/youth-oriented organizations and agencies as well as funders.
Process: I began looking to the front-line workers themselves for activities they’ve used and rely regularly upon. I drafted a simple document to send out to 80+ partner organizations, asking for activities suggestions. I then engage in thorough research, pulling from academic sources of journals and publications, as well as testimonials from videos in a previous project. I used this info to decide on the website’s structure and icon categorization.
Solution:
Website with:
- A guidebook complete with activities organized by areas of development and under the 3 pillars of critical hours programming. While the activities do not specify ages or levels, there are recommendations for how to modify the activity in order to increase or decrease difficulty.
- Resources and templates to accompany select activities (only available online for self-printing).
- Tips for successful program planning and further supporting participants in their skills development.
- Links to additional resources and third party programming tools to work in tangent with 150 Days of Programming.
