GELYDA Events

November Webinar

Extended Education Staff: The People Who Make Programs for Youth Creative and Effective

Empowering the Workforce for Impact

Please join us for a dynamic one-hour panel discussion on November 5th, 2025 8am to 9am ET on the future of the extended education workforce. Building off our first Extensions magazine edition and together with international field experts, we’ll explore critical questions around properly supporting extended education staff and the evolving role of “lay people” in supporting programming. Furthermore we will address how out-of-school time programs can build essential workforce skills in professionals as well as the young people they support to promote future readiness.

Panelists from Australia, South Africa, Germany and the United States will examine these important topics.

Panelists:

Kylie Brannelly, Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Children’s Activities Network (QCAN) and Chairperson of the National Outside School Hours Services Alliance (NOSHSA) (Australia)
Laurin Bremerich, Technical University of Dortmund; Franziska Bock, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg; and Daniel Rohde, University of Hildesheim (Germany) represented by one speaker
Dr. Amreen Thompson, Associate Director of Research and Evaluation at Partnerships in Education and Resilience (PEAR) (USA)
Moderator: Dr. Linda Khanyi, Chief Education Specialist. Gauteng Department of Education (South Africa)

Whether you are a practitioner, policymaker, or researcher, this session will provide fresh insights and actionable strategies to advance both the professionals who power extended education and the youth they serve. Following the panel discussion there will be time for questions and comments.

Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the conversation shaping the future of extended learning. Please register for the event by clicking on the link below. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The webinar will be recorded and shared out with all registrants to work with all timezones.

Upcoming Summer 2026 GELYDA Conference

The GELYDA Steering Committee is pleased to announce the Association’s next in-person conference in Seoul, South Korea in Summer 2026! Preparing young people for democratic citizenship is more urgent than ever. Children and youth must develop the values, skills, and attitudes to participate meaningfully in community life, safeguard positive norms, and contribute to a more just and connected global society. Without this intentional preparation, we risk what Hobbes once warned of—a “bellum omnium contra omnes”—a war of all against all.

Empathy, responsibility, collaboration, and commitment to the common good—do not happen by chance. They must be cultivated through both formal schooling and extended education. Afterschool programs, service learning, and community initiatives provide critical opportunities for young people to practice perspective taking, civic engagement, and collective problem-solving.

The 2026 GELYDA international conference calls on practitioners, policymakers and researchers to explore how schools and extended education can share responsibility in preparing the next generation for active, engaged and inclusive citizenship at the local, national, and global levels. We invite you to contribute papers and presentations that advance this essential agenda.