Program Spotlight: Harrisonburg's On the Road Collaborative keeps kids on the road to success during the pandemic.

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Subject: Program Spotlight: Harrisonburg's On the Road Collaborative keeps kids on the road to success during the pandemic.

In response to the current pandemic, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam closed all schools in Virginia for the remainder of the school year and youth-serving programs are limited to essential workers. Suddenly, all time has become out-of-school time. However, Virginia’s out-of-school time community understands that kid's needs for learning, exploration, and social connection, along with working families’ needs for supports, don’t stop. We will be shining a spotlight on the innovative and uniquely responsive ways that out-of-school time programs across our Commonwealth are continuing to serve kids and families.

On the Road Collaborative is keeping kids on the road to success during the time of COVID-19.

The heart of the work is all in the name for On the Road Collaborative. Youth that are on the road to realizing their promise and going after their biggest goals. Helping young people discover their passion, develop confidence, and build skills that set them on the road to college and career success. Harrisonburg’s On the Road Collaborative (OTRC) is a non-profit organization that partners with schools and community stakeholders to empower middle-school and high-school-aged youth by providing equal access to educational opportunities and hands-on career experiences.

Their focus remains the same, but when the work is based on hands-on experiences, what does that look like during a pandemic? How do you stay on the road when the road looks so unfamiliar right now? Preparing young people for their great transitions in life, along with all other programming, has shifted from completely in-person to completely online. In April and May, OTRC has taken teens on college tours meeting with the senior recruiter of Bowie State, a professor from William & Mary, the presidents of Blue Ridge Community College and Eastern Mennonite University, as well as students from West Virginia University. Meetings typically start with an overview of the school, a quick tour of the campus via video or photos, and then a Q&A where students can ask any questions they have about the school or college life in general.

To address middle-school-aged youth’s concerns about transitioning to high-school, OTRC partnered with area schools to host virtual Q&A sessions with school counselors and older peers. These sessions tackle issues such as scheduling hurdles for 9th graders, tips about navigating a new school, and questions lingering from the school closures. High-school-aged participants of OTRC also presented their own stories of adjusting to high school and offered tips on how to make the process a little smoother.

The foundation of all this work comes from On the Road Collaborative’s leadership who explicitly defined for their staff what their goals, scheduling, and strategies would look like during this crisis. A copy of this overview is available for reference on VPOST’s Pandemic Response Resource Page. On the logistics front, staff use Remind and phone calls for outreach. Knowing the importance of maintaining relationships, staff call participants on their birthdays. On the Road Collaborative is using Google Classroom for live programing to intentionally create continuity with the virtual environment used by Harrisonburg Public Schools.

For youth, stepping from one stone to the next can be intimidating under normal circumstances and the uncertainty of our current situation, of course, compounds that greatly. On the Road Collaborative’s approach is a shining example of how programs in Virginia continue to show up for our young people.

To follow On the Road Collaborative, visit them at https://www.ontheroadcollaborative.com or on Facebook @ontheroadcollaborative, Twitter/Instagram @ontheroadcollab.

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Subject: Program Spotlight: Harrisonburg's On the Road Collaborative keeps kids on the road to success during the pandemic.