GELYDA Update Letter - April 2024

​

Dear Friends of GELYDA, 

 

As we have fully embarked on our 2024 work, I am delighted to share some significant updates and invitations that mark key milestones in the journey of our Global Extended Learning and Youth Development Association (GELYDA).

 

Celebrating a New Year of GELYDA: With pride and gratitude, we celebrate the beginning of the first full year of our existence. Since our inauguration in September in Bern, our collective efforts have laid the foundation for GELYDA to become the bridge between innovative research, practice, and policy in extended learning and youth development across six continents.

 

Your Information Hub (GELYDA Website): Our commitment to fostering a global community is further realized through the launch of our website, GELYDA.org. This platform serves as an information hub for members and the general public alike. We encourage you to visit the site today, contribute blogs, share events in your countries, and showcase interesting legislative initiatives or sample programs and curricula. To contribute material to the website, please contact us at gelyda.association@outlook.com. Contact Marlene Gras, GELYDA Steering Committee Members, at gras.marlene@gmail.com about contributing a blog submission or recommending someone to do one.

 

Inaugural International Symposium: Under the leadership of GELYDA Steering Committee member Professor Ludwig Stecher, the Association is excited to announce our inaugural international symposium, The Extended Learning and Youth development in Times of Crisis. The virtual symposium is scheduled for May 15th, 2024 (11:30am - 2:30pm CET/5:30am - 8:30am EST) and May 16th, 2024 (6:00pm - 9:00pm CET/12:00pm - 3:00pm EST) and will feature Dr. Andreas Schleicher as the keynote speaker as well as engaging panel discussions and presentation. Dr. Schleicher, is the lead at OECD for PISA which has expanded to include out-of-school learning and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)/21st Century Skills. We hope you will join us for this free two-day virtual symposium and more information and registration information on the event can be found on the GELYDA website.

 

Extended Education Conference in Australia (September 2024): We are proud supporters of the Conference in Australia sponsored by the International Research Task Force on Extended Education, taking place in Brisbane this September. GELYDA has been invited to organize an invited symposium. We encourage all of you to join Jenny Cartmel and her team for what promises to be an exciting event. More information to come and to learn more please visit the GELYDA website.

 

GELYDA Conference in Giessen, Germany (In 2025): Looking ahead, we are thrilled to announce the GELYDA Conference in Giessen, Germany, scheduled for September 2025. Mark your calendars to save the date! This conference will be conducted in a hybrid manner, allowing participants to choose between in-person and online attendance. We are excited about this opportunity to make the conference accessible to a global audience. To ensure your convenience, we are actively working towards establishing an every-other-year cycle, reducing the need to choose between two international afterschool conferences in one year. More information to come and to learn more please visit the GELYDA website.

 

Extensions Newsletter: GELYDA is excited to announce the upcoming launch of our regular newsletter, Extensions. This magazine will serve as a platform for sharing insights, practice, research, and success stories in the field of extended learning and youth development. We invite you to contribute newsworthy short pieces in research, policy, and practice to be featured in our inaugural issue and beyond. If you are interested in publishing or being part of the editorial team, please reach out to Stephan Kielblock (editor) at s.kielblock@dipf.de and Kylie Brannelly (co-editor) at kylie@qcan.org.au for further details.

 

As we embark on these exciting endeavors, we invite your active participation, collaboration, and support. Your contributions are vital to the success of our initiatives, and together, we can create global impact in the field of extended learning and youth development. Please consider becoming a founding member today. There is no cost associated with joining, only benefits! You will see a button on the homepage of our website to formally join and please consider encouraging your fellow colleagues to join as well.

 

Thank you for being an integral part of the GELYDA community. We look forward to celebrating milestones, exchanging ideas, and advancing our shared mission in the upcoming conferences and magazine publications. 

 

Warm regards,

 

Gil G. Noam, GELYDA Chair

Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School

 

And the Steering Committee of GELYDA

 

SangHoon Bae, Professor at the Department of Education and Provost in the Sungkyunkwan University

 

Dale Blyth, Professor Emeritus and former Howland Endowed Chair in Youth Development Leadership

 

Kylie Brannelly, Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Children’s Activities Network (QCAN) and Chairperson of the National Outside School Hours Services Alliance (NOSHSA)

 

Marlene Gras, Founder and Director of TierraED

 

Fuyuko Kanefuji, Professor at the Department of Human Sciences and Director of the Institute of Living Sciences, Bunkyo University

 

Linda Khanyi, Manager and Content Advisor at the Parliament of South Africa (National Council of Provinces)

 

Stephan Kielblock, Postdoctoral Researcher at DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Frankfurt a. M. (Germany)

 

Kolbrún Þorbjörg Pálsdóttir, Dean of the School of Education at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik

 

Ludwig Stecher, Professor at the University of Giessen