Updates to this year’s
California Afterschool & Summer Challenge
Every year, more and more students, families, and afterschool advocates participate in the CalSAC Afterschool and Summer Challenge—raising our collective voice at the State Capitol and demanding increased support for afterschool and summer programs. Together, we helped secure an additional $100 million for state-funded afterschool programs. This funding has been a critical first step, but it is not enough to meet the current and growing demand for afterschool programs. Together, we can do more to ensure children and families get the high-quality programs they count on each day.
In response to growing participation and a need to strengthen our collective voice year-round, we are now offering increased programming, smaller legislative visits, and a fee-introduction.
1. Increased Programming
Advocacy is a year-round commitment. To build an informed, engaged, and mobilized base, we will use the Challenge as an opportunity to sharpen advocacy skills that can be used beyond your time at the Challenge--and will be offering increased programming and educational opportunities. Look for learning sessions led by your peers and colleagues, Advocacy Ambassador alumni, policy experts, and community members making a large difference within their communities. Topics will include year-round advocacy and how to organize and build relationships at the local level. You’ll learn how to stay engaged with advocacy after the Challenge, and connect with others in your region. Together we can strengthen our collective power. Together, we Unite. Empower. Transform!
2. Keeping your voice heard; smaller legislative visits
Our collective voice is growing! Each year as more attend the Challenge, we are starting to reach capacity for legislative visits. To ensure that legislative visits stay productive and that attendees have a chance to speak, we will be prioritizing individuals and groups who register early to have visits with legislators and staff in their region. We are exploring alternative programming during the afternoon when legislative visits take place, stayed tuned for more details! For those bringing youth, we encourage you to take advantage of the many educational opportunities that Sacramento has to offer, for example, schedule a tour of the Capitol.
3. Fee introduction.
After 15 years of offering this program for free, we are introducing a small fee to offset the cost of hosting this event. Funds will be used to help offset travel costs for underrepresented regions and to enable representative participation. We know that participants are already contributing time, talent, and the costs associated with travel and lodging--if you are unable to pay the $10 registration fee, please choose the pay by PO option, and you can register without paying a fee. Students, families, sponsor organizations, and volunteers should also choose the “pay by PO” option and do not need to pay a registration fee. We are committed to ensuring that the registration fee is not a barrier to participation; if you have any questions about this please write Ayala at agoldstein@calsac.org.