Supporting Out‐of‐School Time Staff in Low Resource Communities: A Professional Development Approach

Highlights In low resource communities, afterschool programs provide academic support, enrichment, and safety. Out‐of‐school time (OST)programs struggle to meet aims due to low resources, low structure, and limited PD and support. We varied support (business as usual, performance feedback, coaching) and measured fidelity. Implementation fidelity was associated with level of staff support and site contextual factors. Targeted investment in OST staff is critical for supporting youth in low‐resource communities. Federally funded out‐of‐school time (OST) programs provide academic support, enrichment, and safety for students and families in low‐resource communities. However, programs struggle to meet these aims, in part because of the lack of program structure and limited training and support for staff. This observational case study documents the training and technical assistance (TA) delivered to OST frontline staff and program leadership to implement Positive Behavior in Out‐of‐School Time (Positive BOOST), an adaptation of positive behavior interventions and supports conducted in multiple settings. Findings across three programs indicate that varied levels of TA (i.e., business as usual, performance feedback, coaching) are associated with different levels of staff‐ and program‐level implementation. Taken together with previous research, these findings suggest that targeted investment in developing the skills of OST staff and improving program‐wide outcomes is critical for supporting youth in low‐resource communities.