Your youth program runs on more than just passion for helping kids in your community—it involves plenty of behind-the-scenes planning and logistics. Using a digital platform to manage enrollment, participants, professional development, online curriculum, and more together in one place, you can streamline your operations and enhance your program for the benefit of staff, families, and kiddos.

Streamline program planning

Planning your program will always be an involved process, but it shouldn’t be a complicated one. With a digital platform for program planning, you can develop a big picture for your program and stay organized as you tackle the practical steps needed to be ready for day one. Embracing a digital platform for program planning not only helps you stay organized but can also allow your staff to collaborate remotely during the lead-up to your program launch.

Elevate your staff experience.

Staffing is a huge aspect of your program’s success. As volunteers or staff members onboard and expand their learning over time, they deserve an excellent experience. You can deliver that with a digital platform where they can work through training modules in one place at their own pace. Digital access also means staff can access these resources from anywhere—whether they’re preparing for their first day from their favorite coffee shop or are sharpening their skills from home during a break.

Simplify enrollment for families and your team.

Enrollment is another area where a digital-first approach is extremely helpful—both for you and for program participants. Consider what families would prefer between:

  1. Filling out paper forms and mailing them in or dropping them off in person.
  2. Filling out digital forms online from their couch.
Managing enrollment online also benefits your team. There’s no need to transcribe data from paper forms into spreadsheets or software systems, and you can easily access all the information you need on participants in one centralized database (more on that in the next section).

Easily consult data on your program participants.

Does anyone in this class have a peanut allergy? Is this friend or relative authorized to pick up this child? Who was absent on the day we went over this lesson?

With a digital-first approach to program planning, all of these questions and more can be answered with a few quick clicks rather than a deep dive into a filing cabinet. Having this information at your fingertips can help you keep kids safe and deliver a high-quality program tailored to them.

Facilitate thorough family communications.

A digital approach to your program management also makes it easier to keep families in the know. Whether it’s sharing extensive information prior to day one, sending a quick update about a scheduling change, or responding to a parent’s question, you can handle all of these communications in one place with a digital platform like Arly. Parents will appreciate knowing where to find information and just how convenient it is to stay in the loop.

Gain visibility into program metrics.

When you manage your program the old-fashioned way, with manual spreadsheets and records, it can be complicated to determine  important program metrics like:

  • Overall program numbers
  • Attendance rates
  • Professional development hours
  • Retention rates
  • Academic outcomes
These metrics are helpful to you as you plan and refine your program, and they’re also valuable nuggets to share with stakeholders to demonstrate your program’s success. In fact, some grants will require you to share metrics like these, so you want to ensure you have visibility into this data. You get that visibility with a digital platform. No need to run numbers manually—you can quickly gain insights into your program based on data you’ve been tracking all along.

Access online curriculum anywhere, anytime.

One major benefit of a digital-first approach to teachers is having a virtual hub for online curriculum. Being able to access online curriculum from their tablet, laptop, or mobile device makes planning more convenient and allows teachers to pivot to different activities if needed on the fly.

Extra time at the end of the day? A planned activity not landing well with kids? Whatever the reason, you can quickly access easy-to-follow activities right there in your program management platform—with no need to print out lesson plans or activity guides.

Push Your Program Forward with a Digital-First Approach

Now is the time to embrace the benefits of technology for your youth program. Having tools and resources for managing program planning, staff training, enrollment, participant data, family communications, program metrics, and curriculum all in one solution is the easiest, most efficient, and best way to plan and implement a high-quality program.

With Arly, you can enjoy the convenience and transparency that an all-in-one digital solution delivers for your youth program. Want to see the platform in action? Request a demo!

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