SOAR- Analysis
GCC Core Program Development (Curriculum, Community, and family engagement)
Created by: Shantrice Solis
GCC Core Program Development (Curriculum, Community, and family engagement)
Strengths Opportunities
What do we excel at / are most proud of? What improvements or changes in curriculum?
What makes us unique? What limitations do we see that we could reframe as opportunities?
What are our values? What needs and wants are we currently not fulfilling for our students and
What do we want people to gain, grow, or practice by families?
participating in our programs? What partnerships would lead to greater success?
How do we design PURPOSEFUL program to foster What community events would lead to more family engagement?
connection, curiosity, and courage?
.
Aspirations Results
What measures will tell us we are on track to achieve success?
What is our vision for the future, what do we want to achieve?
How do we know when we’ve achieved our goals?
How can we make a difference?
How do we measure impact, change or improvement?
How can we make sure all staff are trained?
Making sure assessments are done twice a year?
How do we maintain learning environments that are nurturing
and support development for all children? (ECE, EAS, MS and
HS)
GCC Core Program Model
ECE, EAS, MS, and HS
The GCC program model will guide program planning, implementations, and evaluation to allow for innovation while maintaining focus and clear purpose.
Our program outcomes: What do we want the children to gain, grow, or practice by participating in our programs?
Programs will foster connection, curiosity, and courage so the children and youth feel empowered to thrive the way they want and while also staying in
compliance with our grants and city regulations.
We foster connection so students We foster curiosity so our children We foster courage so staff, children
can relate, share, receive and care. and youth can dream, aspire, and and youth have pride and trust their
achieve. abilities.
Priority skills:
Priority skills: Priority sills:
Collaboration
Compassion Creative thinking Resourcefulness
belonging Growth mindset Self-efficacy
purpose Self-regulations
Program Guides: Program formats: Programs explore:
Trauma informed care Structured time Culture and identity
Participant driven Single session or field trip Health and fitness
Justice equity diversity and inclusion Informal time STEM
Strengths and assets focused. Individualized resources connection Art, music, dance
Safe, supportive, engaging learning environments Events Math
Experiential learning: experience, reflect, think, College and careers
apply
Connection to the community
Reflection
For this assignment, I needed help deciding on what topic to choose. I made a list of issues
that we are trying to improve or change in my department at work. In my new role as
Director of Youth Careers and Development, I wanted to use this assignment to break down
what changes I could implement in our programs. Once I understood this activity, it got me
thinking about many things. At my job, we have company goals, and this was helpful for me
to figure out a plan for how to improve programming and what we are already doing well.
I decided to focus on program development and what it entails. I started this process by
asking, "Why are we here?" and "What are we doing?" This led me to the statement that we
strengthen lives and secure futures by increasing access to resources, being a safe
community space, and offering enrichment experiences for children of all ages. I know this
activity is geared more toward early childhood education, but I want to find a way to merge
all the departments I work with, as they all have something to do with children from 3-18.
In the Strengths section, I asked questions like, "What are we proud of?" and "What makes
us unique?" To answer these, we are good at making our children feel special, included,
and supported. Another thing is our staff. Everyone in the organization has many different
skills and abilities working towards the same goal. In the Opportunities part, I had questions
about our engagement and partnerships. So, I used this to create a list of all our partners
and resources, what events we've done in the past to bring in families, and how we can
improve. Aspirations: if we consistently implement our program goals and ensure
intentionality in all our children's programs, we could show growth learning and how each
staff member is qualified and has the resources to support children's development. We will
also see where we need to improve when it comes to professional development needs for
our staff. Lastly, in Results, we can start with staff surveys to get an idea of what staff need
to feel successful in their classrooms. We also lead by the voices of the kids we serve so
that we can have families’ complete surveys for the younger children, or we could have
youth evaluations where they share their thoughts on programs and what they would like to
do and need support from our staff and the center.
After completing the SOAR chart, it led me to think about questions and statements like,
"The GCC program model will guide program planning, implementations, and evaluation to
allow for innovation while maintaining focus and clear purpose." Our program outcomes:
What do we want the children to gain, grow, or practice by participating in our programs?
Programs will foster connection, curiosity, and courage. Hence, the children and youth feel
empowered to thrive the way they want while also staying in compliance with our grants
and city regulations. I broke down each of those questions to pinpoint the skills needed to
reach these goals. I also made a list of program outcomes, program format, and program
exploration. I'm going to continue to work on this and use it as my presentation at our senior
leadership meetings. This is a beneficial tool to use. I took a step further on a different
document, and in the Results area, I set dates on when we should do surveys and
assessments to ensure we are meeting our goals. I will also do monthly check-ins with my
staff to see where they are in this process and how I can support them if needed .
Reference Page
Edmondson, A. C. (2019). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the workplace for
learning, Innovation, and growth. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Microsoft. Microsoft Support. (n.d.). https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/share-sharepoint-files-or-
folders-1fe37332-0f9a-4719-970e-d2578da4941c
Goodman's strategic plan and the City of Madison reports were used to complete the activity.
