Attention:  Many-hat-wearing educators!

Do you wish you could increase your program’s potential impact, improve student outcomes, and create sustainability but don’t know where to start? afterschool program evaluation, program evaluation for afterschool, afterschool evaluation

Do you feel like you’re so busy with day-to-day activities and keeping your program afloat that you never have any time to reflect and plan?

Are you spending your own time on program and work needs (including that mental chugging that you do when driving, making dinner, or spending time with your own kids)?

Have you just about had it with accountability requirements, data, and reports?  Do they always take you away from the work that you’re really supposed to be doing? 

What would it feel like to…

Be more effective and present at work and at home?  To feel happier, healthier, and more balanced?

Have more time for the things that you do best, that only you can do?  Spend less of YOUR own time on work and free you up for your family, for the things you love to do, and for yourself?  

Once again feel confident and in control of all the moving parts?  Have a program that shows positive results?  Programs that show positive results can help you secure more funding and resources, improve long-term benefits for students and families, and even improve your professional prospects, as you’ll be able to show how you influenced your program’s positive results.

…without being stopped by lack of time, money, overwhelm, or not knowing what to do next?

If this sounds like you, I have good news.

It is possible to…

• decrease stress and overwhelm,
• get back your outside-of-work time that you’ve been spending on your afterschool program,
• feel like you have things under control,
• increase resources, and
• create positive, lasting change, while feeling less alone, more balanced, and more supported.

Wondering how?

Let me introduce you to Afterschool Accelerator, a customized-to-your-program-and-you approach that helps afterschool educators like you improve program results without adding to your already-full plate.

Afterschool Accelerator will help you:

• understand how your program’s current system creates its current results;
• achieve clarity about your program’s results and know exactly where to focus your efforts;
• create a comprehensive, systemic approach to results that includes content, instructional design, staffing, alignment, processes, tools, data, partners, resources and funding, and more;
• feel more in control and supported;
• decrease feelings of overwhelm;
• reduce the volume of your own time you’re spending on your program outside of work;
• identify needs and secure resources;
• use program outcomes to showcase results and promote your program;
• have peace of mind that your program’s accountability expectations are handled by an experienced professional; and
• establish a clear, implementable plan for moving forward.

Bonus!  This program will also increase your capacity to achieve results for your program and yourself. 

Because while getting positive results for your afterschool program is great, if it comes at the cost of your personal health and mental wellness, that doesn’t help your students, your family, or you.

Afterschool Accelerator will support you to achieve sustainability (yours and your program’s) and create more time, energy, and mental space for yourself and your family.

Afterschool Accelerator is a customized, 1:1, in-depth analysis, evaluation, and strategic alignment of your afterschool program’s operations, implementation, and results. 

This is a done-with-you service that helps you identify needs and priorities and then move forward strategically to achieve your goals and performance targets.

You’ll get:

A tailored plan for your program and your needs as its director.

A comprehensive report of program data analysis and interpretations with clear, easy-to-understand results and key points and targeted recommendations.

Support for meeting funder and leadership accountability expectations through reports, data tools, and processes.

A trusted advisor and guide throughout this process, even if you just need someone to listen when you want to think out loud.

You chose a career in education because you wanted to make a difference in the lives of children.  Not to manage logistics, put out fires, and deal with funding requirements. 

So, who am I to help you?

By now you may be wondering who I am and why I created this program.  Well, let me introduce myself.

My name is Leslie McConnell and I founded North of the Present to help educators create more impactful programs without stress.

For the past two decades, I have helped educators like you improve programs and achieve better results for students. I’m a growth coach, program evaluator, data analyst, and educator (More about my background here.) specializing in afterschool, out-of-school time, and grant-funded education programs.  I’ve helped community organizations, businesses, and government agencies figure out where they are, where they want to go, and how to get there with support along the way. 

I have evaluated more than $150 million worth of grant-funded programs, most of them in afterschool and out-of-school settings.

I helped supplemental education programs secure more than $36 million in grant funding.

I annually analyze data for more than 50,000 students and adults.

But for me, this is about more than just data (though I do love data).

Because what I found in the past 20 years is that so much of the program work and evaluation focus was missing the mark.  

Other evaluators seem to focus mostly on the program’s research basis or one or two elements of the program and its data without much attention paid to how the program operates as a system.  How all the parts come together to create an ecosystem within which student growth can happen.  And one where staff and leadership capacity is strengthened and supported, not exploited.

The more programs I work with the more I realize how the staff – in particular program directors and coordinators – are being called on to take on more work and more responsibility without considering the mental toll, and how that can (negatively) influence the program’s results.

How do I know that?  I, personally, am a recovering wearer of too many hats.

I know how it feels to be pulled in multiple directions and have competing priorities, tasks, and people for my limited attention.

And I know that my performance suffered.  As a professional and as a mom.  It wasn’t healthy or productive for my work or my kids.

It was that epiphany that opened my eyes to the hidden reason that so many programs were not achieving at their potential…they only focused on the program with little – if any – attention to the people running it.

This realization made me rethink and adjust my approach to consider how the programs I served could create better results while also reducing the mental load on its leaders and staff.

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I know that the Afterschool Accelerator is going to change everything for you.