Christina Yoon SPEAKING UP: Victor Torres, a CREST staff member at Grant Elementary School, explains the activities that his team provides for Grant students at the CREST back-to-school training session. CREST program offers after-school enrichment in kids’ own school yards
By CHRISTINA YOON Special to the Daily Press
CIVIC AUDITORIUM While kids throughout Santa Monica gather fresh pencils and notebooks in anticipation for the first day of school, staff members at the Youth Office of Santa Monica are making preparations of their own.
About 80 staff members gathered at the Civic Auditorium last week for a two-day training session for the Youth Office’s CREST program, picking up tips on everything from discouraging a “scoreboard mentality” to new yoga poses.
CREST, which stands for Childcare Recreation Enrichment Sports Together, provides after-school programs for students in Santa Monica’s elementary and middle schools.
“Every single employee will be there,”said Julie Kim, the administrative analyst for CREST and one of the training session organizers.“The vast majority of the staff are veterans of the program who have been here for the past several years.”
Despite the staff members’ expertise, the training still proved valuable to them as they prepared for another school year, and with that, new challenges.
“A lot of it is a refresher course, but it’s always good to hear and take what you learn and make it your own,” said Alex Morales, who has worked with CREST for six years.
CREST is run by a small, full-time staff as well as an extensive network of part-time workers who are called on an as-needed basis. Some staff members are students and others work for the school district. Morales works during the day as the physical education teacher at Edison Elementary School before coaching the CREST after-school sports programs.
While the group skews to those in their early-to mid-20s, there are some exceptions, such as one staff member who decided to participate after his retirement.
At the training, the staff received a review of all of CREST’s programs and heard specialized presentations on topics including working with youth with special needs and the school district’s policy on child abuse.
“Because it’s usually pretty compartmentalized here we like to give them an overview of everything,” Kim said.
On Thursday morning, staffers heard a presentation from Nick Davidson, who spoke about positive coaching techniques. He led the group through topics including how to discourage a “scoreboard mentality” and dealing with over-emotional parents.
“I definitely learned something new,” said Jackie Aguilar, who coaches volleyball, basketball and soccer at Lincoln Middle School’s CREST program. “There’s always different ways of implementing ideas you might already know about.”
Although many of the instructors, including Aguilar, work at CREST programs during the summer as well, she said the back-to-school training is an essential part of switching from vacation mode to the more intense atmosphere of the school year.
“It’s different because during the summer the only point is for the kids to have fun,” Aguilar said of the sports programs. “In the fall it becomes more competitive because they play other teams, and you also have to be sure to teach them the fundamentals of the sports.”
The staffers must brush up on more than sports strategies before the first bell of the year rings. CREST also offers enrichment programs such as yoga, karate and tennis for kids in kindergarten through eighth grade as well as general after-school childcare for kids in fourth and fifth grades.
There has been some confusion in the past as there is a similar program called Primary CREST for kindergarten through third grade, which is run by the school district office. All other CREST programs are run by the city of Santa Monica, Kim said.
Santa Monica students can also join a CREST program called Playground Access, which allows kids to use their school playgrounds in unstructured but supervised play after classes let out for the day.
The other programs range in price from $70 for the sports program to $340 a month for childcare, but Kim encouraged families to apply to receive discounts on the fees through City Hall. Aid is provided based on income and family size.
“We have really generous financial assistance programs,” Kim said. “It’s very easy to get, at the very least, a third of the cost taken off.”
CREST provides camps and sports throughout break times as well, but with fall approaching the staff must switch gears to school mode.
“One thing we’ve been trying to encourage staff to do is to think creatively when making up curriculum,” Kim said.
At this year’s back to school training, staff members heard from representatives of the police department, fire department and the Farmers’ Market for ideas on how to integrate public resources into after-school activities.
“We’ve got an abundance of city resources,” Kim said. “We want to be able to use local resources and expand on the options for our kids.”
The yearly back-to-school training gives staff members a chance to tap into those resources before the rush of the school year begins as well as reconnect with other instructors that they may not get a chance to see every day. Michael Rosales has worked in CREST programs for eight years and was still reminded at Thursday’s training how much he loves his job.
“I’m blessed to get paid to do something I love,” he said.
More information about CREST programs can be found at the Youth Office web-site: CREST.smgov.net
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 2, 2008. Read the original PDF.