2020 Bridge Conference

Overview

School’s Out Washington’s annual Bridge Conference is a multi-day regional convening focused on exploring, celebrating, and influencing our collective field(s) through the act of solidarity and unified learning.

Expanded learning professionals, community organizers, school district representatives, funders, policymakers, and systems leaders will gather to engage in a digital landscape for a unique virtual experience designed for participants to:

Engage with a diverse range of knowledge, people, and perspectives.
Identify the specific ways that racial inequities impact youth, expanded learning opportunities, and educational outcomes.
Experience a sense of belonging to nourish social connection and professional networking.
Learn how to implement tangible practices that promote an equitable expanded learning opportunity ecosystem.
Strive to recognize power dynamics throughout programs and systems and begin to strategize how to co-create stronger partnerships across sectors.
DCYF Reimbursement for School-Age Licensed Care Providers
If you have a STARS ID, you can qualify for DCYF Training Reimbursement. Please follow these steps to request reimbursement:
- Head to the DCYF Training Reimbursement webpage.
- Scroll down and navigate to ‘Training Reimbursement’ to learn more on how to apply. Individuals can apply for up to $250 worth of training reimbursement each year.
If you have any questions, please contact our training team for more information at training@schoolsoutwashington.org
Access and Inclusion
Please read our Statement of Access and Inclusion for more information about the ways we are seeking to make this event accessible and inclusive is available.

Registration

With this move to a virtual experience, we are excited to offer the Bridge Conference experience at a lower registration rate.

Rates

Early Bird Rate (July 1 - July 31)

$225

Standard Registration Rate (August 1 - October 9)

$250

Late Registration Rate (October 10 - 20)

$300

Special Rate for All Washington State Licensed School-Age Programs

$150

Plenaries Only Ticket (October 9 - 23)

$65

Registration closes on October 20, 2020.

Highlights

About this year’s theme

What does it mean to be nimble, to rapidly pivot to, or alongside change? What is the balance between being grounded while being pliable to the necessary transformation needed for our future? Our choices today spark a ripple effect to the realities of tomorrow. So, as we lean into this moment—let us do so with compassion, with authenticity, with equity.

Our 2020 Bridge Conference theme, The Seeds We Sow, emphasizes intention in the act of reimagination. Only together, as a collective, will we solidify a new foundation that intertwines our cultures, values, and leadership to nourish all our young people’s excellence and right to thrive.

Systems Leader Cohort

The Systems Leader Cohort at Bridge is a workshop series for funders, policymakers, and community leaders. This cohort will focus on advancing equity through a well-supported expanded learning system in this profound moment of change.

Speakers and workshop presenters

Identifying speakers to inspire and engage you is an exciting part of our planning process! We look forward to announcing keynote speakers in the months leading up to the conference and will post a full schedule with keynote speakers, workshop details, and more in September 2020.

Opening Keynote Speaker: Dr. Megan Ming Francis

An Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington and Field Director for History and Political Development at the Washington Institute for the Study of Inequality and Race, Dr. Francis will bring her historical knowledge and valuable insights to reimagine new ways to engage in our work with young people. She will ground us in reflecting on how we, as individuals deeply committed to supporting our communities and building systems, programs, and organizations that address inequity and strive toward justice, “can change the world and shift power and resources to those who need it.”

Closing Keynote Speaker: Shontina Vernon

Writer/filmmaker/theatre artist, Shontina Vernon, works using film, multimedia, music, and performance to explore black cultural histories and subjectivities, intergenerational legacies around trauma, and queer identity. She is a 2020 Art for Justice Grantee, a Creative Capital Awardee, and a Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellow. Vernon serves as Lead Producer of the Visionary Justice StoryLab, a film hub and collective working to evolve narratives that are rooted in liberatory frameworks. She is currently developing her first full-length feature film titled Last Kind Words, a 1930s queer blues story, and a limited episodic series centering the lives of womxn of color who have been impacted by the criminal justice system.