Prime Time Palm Beach County provides professional development opportunities to empower out-of-school time (OST) practitioners by creating safe, supportive, and welcoming environments. Prime Time works toward this goal by offering trainings, virtually and in-person.
Prime Time rang in the new year by hosting Walking in Purpose offered as a site-based training at Freedom Shores Elementary Afterschool Program on Tuesday, January 3, 2023. The staff were able to reflect on their own lives, find what values mean most to them, and create and share a vision statement with each other.
Walking in Purpose is different than other training offerings as the content is highly focused on the personal reflection of the practitioner. The goal is to invite practitioners to reflect on their why, their purpose in relation to their work with youth in the out-of-school time (OST) field. This workshop integrates several guided exercises and participatory activities to help practitioners to reflect on their identity, their values and attitude. Participants received some initial key pieces to start writing and building their own personal vision statement.
“Walking in Purpose is a great training for many reasons. It gives front-line staff an understanding that what they do daily basis impacts the youth they serve but also gives them insight as to why they do it and the tools to work together to benefit the youth, their peers and themselves” - Cheri Rosen, Afterschool Program Director
"By allowing Prime Time to facilitate a site-based training, they made personal connections with one another and created a welcoming environment for new staff who started that same day. The practitioners were encouraged to revise their vision statements throughout life to promote the reflection of purposeful changes and to find connections between their peers' vision statements and important personal values." -Daniel Hudspeth, Quality Advisor, Prime Time Palm Beach County
“The interactive games created an open environment that helped make the time fun” - Training Attendee
The Walking in Purpose training also included several team-building activities. Two of the participants were new staff members, so this was a way to help integrate them into the team. Walking in Your Purpose was designed to help practitioners understand our “why.” This can impact the quality of our work and increase the opportunities to provide youth with a safe and healthy environment to learn and grow.
