“Mizzen removes the guesswork out of planning and puts the fun back in.” — Regina Sidney-Brown, Director, Delaware Afterschool Network
In her mission to create high-quality learning experiences for every child in Delaware, Regina Sidney-Brown wears multiple hats. She directs the statewide Delaware Afterschool Network (DEAN), chairs the governor-appointed Extended Learning Opportunities Subcommittee, and has worked in the out-of-school time sector for more than 30 years.
With a focus on everything from program quality to the landscape of learning, Regina’s roles turn out to be the perfect combination for weaving together resources for the afterschool community—and her state.
“Through the network and the committee, I'm able to share content and information that are relevant to programs throughout Delaware,” Regina said. “I have been in the afterschool space forever. I tell people, my sons that are grown-grown benefited from afterschool. So, I am really fortunate to be able to remain in the space that has done so much for my family.”
Drawing on this depth of experience, Regina also played a role in the making of Mizzen. As a member of the Mott-funded 50 State Afterschool Network, she provided key input to the Mott Foundation on the development of the Mizzen by Mott app—and has continued to partner with Team Mizzen since last fall when the platform spun off to become Mizzen Education.
Working closely with Mizzen Education from the start, Regina had a clear vision of how the Delaware network could leverage the platform to empower educators. As a grantee of STEM Next’s Million Girls Moonshot initiative, DEAN launched a two-year mini-grant program to help seven community-based organizations strengthen science, technology, engineering, and math equity by integrating activities, lesson plans, and pro tips from Mizzen Education. She engaged Candice Brown, of Wilmington-based Let’s PLAY Events, to consult with each subgrantee on the design, planning, and implementation of its STEM curricula.
Candice Brown is a seasoned educator, with 30 years of teaching experience in the community and classroom. She launched Let’s PLAY Events to bring fun and enriching mobile learning experiences to young people in every setting. Then, amid COVID, her company pivoted to help communities support students who were struggling with online science and mathematics classes. Let’s PLAY adopted a STEAM-based program, and teamed up with afterschool educators to bring hands-on content to children and youth across the region. That’s how she met Regina and learned about Mizzen Education.
“Here was a way to make learning hands-on and concrete, so it applies to children’s actual lives.” — Candice Brown, Founder, Let’s PLAY Events and STEM Consultant
“When Regina introduced me to Mizzen Education, I was blown away,” Candice said. “I was super excited, because here was a way to make learning hands-on and concrete, so it applies to children’s actual lives.”
In her work with program partners, Candice adopted an interdisciplinary approach. She encouraged educators to focus on their existing strengths and enhance them with lesson plans from Mizzen that bring a real-world STEM focus to any subject.
“Baking a cake or breathing oxygen,” Candice said. “There’s science in everything we do. These activities bring together how STEM and STEAM are in everything.”
Hilltop Lutheran Neighborhood Center was one of DEAN’s implementation partners. A hub for early care and educational services, HLNC creates a safe, nurturing community space for children and youth to develop, grow, and flourish. Its services include afterschool and summer enrichment programs, tutoring, sports teams, and field trips.
Hilltop had a running start using the Mizzen Education platform. Teresa Allen, the Youth Services Coordinator who guides the DEAN mini-grant initiative at HLNC, was an early adopter of the Mizzen platform and mobile app.
“My mission is to educate,” Teresa said. “One of the things that I put in place a long time ago is that I wanted everything that the kids do to be experiential, to be hands-on. We're not doing dittos. It has to be engaging. Mizzen fits right into that vision.”
She incorporated the Mizzen Education app, not only into her own individual practice, but as a collaborative tool for all Hilltop teachers. Using Mizzen for Teams, she helps teachers co-plan, prepare, and implement lessons in a coordinated way.
“The organization has an account and all the teachers are underneath Hilltop,” said Teresa. “It’s not just that you can access the lesson plans, but the essential questions and materials are embedded. It’s created a space that I love for me and my team.”
This approach is important to Regina, who had always envisioned the mini-grants, technical assistance, and resources as a way to help programs build capacity beyond the life of the grant.
“We invest in the adults who work with young people,” Regina said. “So, we were very intentional. We wanted to enhance what they were already doing, by giving them these free resources. And we’re going to continue beyond the grant to work with these partners on lesson planning.”
To encourage this, she has also tapped Mizzen Education as an ongoing partner on educational experiences and statewide conferences. Last spring, DEAN invited Mizzen to take part in Delaware’s “Beyond the Books” Out-of-School Time Hybrid Summit. At the summit, the network convened a gallery walk to highlight how the implementation partners used activities on Mizzen to elevate STEM learning and co-hosted the Triple Threat Design Camp, a youth development programming workshop for educators centered on youth engagement and positive learning experiences.
“I love that team,” Regina said. “You can see it’s a calling. They’re in this space because they're really passionate about making sure that afterschool providers have enriching content to use in their afterschool programs. Being a part of Mizzen from the beginning has been amazing. And just to see how it has evolved does my heart really, really good.”