Using the ACTIVITY SCREEN In the Massachusetts Career Ready Database

The Activity Screen provides space for sharing information about career development activities and events … … including anything you and your partners do to support your career readiness mission: from a Job Shadowing Day to a workshop series to an employer breakfast

Sign into the Online WBL Database at https://masswbl.org From the main menu, click the navigation button to go to the Activity Screen

This is the Activity Screen.

Along the left: You see a list of activities in your region. Use these buttons to add activities to your list and to go to existing activities.

Along the right: Use the right side of the screen for entering information about the activity, including: Name of activity Start date Type of activity Description # of participants Contact information Is this Connecting Activities? Any in-kind and financial support (optional)

Notice that the screen includes a checklist for identifying the type of activity. We will be sharing a glossary (and “control tips” that you can see when you mouse-over these checklist items) to help to define the elements in this checklist.

Examples

This entry shows a workshop series focused on work readiness This entry shows a workshop series focused on work readiness. It is classified as “Workshop/Presentation” in the Type of Activity checklist.

This entry shows a “Junior Seminar” – a workshop series for juniors focused on college planning, and including a career interest assessment. It is classified as “Workshop/Presentation” and “Career Assessment/Career Interest Inventory.”

This entry shows a Freshman Career Exploration Workshop This entry shows a Freshman Career Exploration Workshop. During the workshop, students had the opportunity to start a “College and Career Plan” using the online Career Cruising software’s “career portfolio.” It is therefore classified as “Workshop/Presentation and “College and Career Plans ~ Online.”

This entry shows a regional “Youth Summit” with workshops, speakers and financial literacy information. Since Connecting Activities program collaborates with schools, community partners, youth councils., and others, it is great to highlight regional events such as this, in order to provide a snapshot of how youth career development is supported in your region.

This entry shows a career fair with 20 employers This entry shows a career fair with 20 employers. The Connecting Activities Career Specialist helped to organize this event, working along with others in the school.

This entry shows a guest career speaker This entry shows a guest career speaker. It is classified as “Career Fair/Career Day/Career Speakers.” Notice, along the left, that there is an entry for each speaker in this series. This series had outstanding variety of speakers from many different career areas, and so it was a good choice to list each individually. But another option is to provide one summary entry for a whole series of guest speakers. It is up to you to organize your information in a way that makes sense to you, providing accurate reporting and allows you to record information as the year goes along.

This entry provides a copy of an article published by the Chamber of Commerce with a call to “Hire a Youth.” You can read the full text of this article and of some other articles and press releases in the database. It is classified as “Outreach/Media/Publicity.”

A detailed look at the information included on the Activity Screen

Basic Information & Participation Details… Name of Activity Provide a descriptive name, generally including the name of the school involved and the year or date of the activity. Activity Start Date The date of an event or the starting date of an ongoing series or program. Type of Activity A checklist, allowing you to check all that apply. Please focus on elements that are actually part of the event or activity you are currently describing, and explain the various elements in the description. Activity Description Please provide enough description to be valuable to other readers who would like to know about how you include various topics or elements in your workshops, etc. You can also use this field to describe how collaborative events were organized or other useful detail. Number of Students Number of participating students. (Note - If the activity is a work-based learning program, the number of students and employers is automatically filled in, based on the number of participants listed in the placement screen.) Number of Employers Number of participating employers, if applicable Number of Teachers Number of participating teachers or staff, such as for professional development events or teacher externships, as applicable. CONTINUED ON NEXT SCREEN-

Additional participation details… Grades Included Checkboxes to indicate the grades included: Grades K-8, Grade 9, Grade 10, Grade 11 or Grade 12. Staff Contact Name Name of staffperson to contact with questions. This can be displayed on the “Activity List” and shared with other regions within the database. Staff Contact Email Along with the staff contact name, this can be shared with other regions. OK to Share? Is it okay to share this activity description with other regions through the “Activity List” screen? The “default” choice is now “Yes.” But you may choose not to share, or to share the activity name and activity description only but not the staff contact name and email. Is this Connecting Activities? A yes/no question. Answer “yes” if staff in the Connecting Activities network organized or facilitating or staffed the activity or event. NOTE: Since Connecting Activities does many projects in collaboration with school and community partners, you are welcome (and encouraged!) to use this screen to share information about activities that are not directly tied to Connecting Activities. You should answer “no” to this question for any activities that you would not “claim” in Connecting Activities reports. If not – specify If the activity was not organized or facilitated by Connecting Activities, identify the organization(s) who provided the activity, such as the school, youth council or a community organization. Continued on next screen-

(Optional) In-kind and financial support Description of Monetary and In-kind contributions This is an optional section. It is useful for keeping a record of support received from community and employer partners. Note that when you write the Connecting Activities RFR and when/if you apply for various grants, you are asked to write about the financial and in-kind support you receive from partners. This support is a good indication that your programs have strong support in your community and that employers and community partners value the work you do. It is also a good record to help guide outreach and requests for contributions in subsequent years. Amount of in-kind support Enter an approximate dollar value of in-kind support received. This can be a very rough estimate. For example, if eight employers each volunteered two hours, you could value those hours at $100/hr., and enter $1600. Or, for example, if a local restaurant provided food for 40 individuals, you could value the food at $10 per person and enter $400. Amount of financial support Enter the dollar value of support received for the activity. For example, if you received a $500 grant from a local organization to support your work, enter $500.

Viewing reports

Use the navigation buttons along the top of the screen to view the Activity List or Activity Summary. The Activity List, shown here, provides a list, with dates, description, and number of participants.

You can view the Activity List for just your own entries, just your region or ALL regions. You can also choose a date range and a type of activity to view (based on the checklist)

The “Activity Summary” provides a count of activities, students, employers and teachers, also for your own region or all regions and by date range.