Youth are offered tutoring, academic enrichment activities that include STEM (i.e., science, technology, engineering, and math), and recreational activities such as sports and the arts. GSS wants to improve training for its frontline staff. Currently, frontline staff receive no formal training, and the organization has been experiencing high staff turnover in its Brooklyn-based sites. GSS plans a systematic training, supervision, and assessment program for all frontline employees. It will create two new positions: director of professional development initiatives and licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) supervisor. The director of professional development initiatives would apply the NYSAN Program Quality Self-Assessment Tool to evaluate what works and what needs to be improved. The new director would then create a standard, agency-wide training and supervision plan to attract, train, and retain a staff knowledgeable about best practices in youth development. The LCSW would oversee clinical supervision of masters in social work interns.
Grand Street Settlement (GSS) provides expanded learning time services to 2,000 children at three centers and several schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
