2020 Bridge Conference
Stay tuned for more information about our fall 2021 conference.
On this page:
Overview & Registration
Highlights & Updates
Registration
Schedule
Connect On Social
Sponsors
Exhibitors
Questions?
Bridge Values

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.
2020 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
Highlights
About our 2020 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
We were thrilled to welcome more than 83 speakers for our 2020 Bridge Conference, including keynotes by Dr. Megan Ming Francis and Shontina Vernon. Stay tuned in 2021 for announcements about this year’s presenters.
Are you interested in presenting at the 2021 Bridge Conference? Please fill out this Presenter Interest Form, and we will email you when the Request for Proposal timeframe opens.
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.
Updates
Reflections on Bridge
Planning this year was tough, not knowing what folks would need or want in the middle of a pandemic, while also navigating the fight for Black lives and the buildup of fear around the upcoming election. There were so many unknowns we were juggling, and our team worked really hard to ground ourselves and the spaces we curated in our Bridge values: equity, belonging, leadership, nourishing, change, innovation, community. Some aspects of the conference manifested so beautifully and perfectly timed, and other aspects we dropped the ball a bit and have room to grow.
Read More2020 Schedule & Presenters
School’s Out Washington has thoughtfully created a conference schedule to
allow for ample breaks and a variety of professional development and learning
opportunities. We intend to deliver engaging, interactive workshops through a
virtual platform with the following components offered throughout the 4-day
experience, as well as access to recorded sessions for a limited time after
Bridge concludes for continued learning.
To help prepare event participants for our virtual Symposium, we’ve put together this Attendee Guidance Checklist for registered attendees! Our event Statement of Access and Inclusion is also available.
Attendees are encouraged to contact our Customer Service Team at bridge@schoolsoutwashington.org or 205-286-9058 if you have any questions or technical difficulties before, during, or after the event!
See the full schedule on Sched!
Tuesday, Oct. 27
9—10:30 a.m. PST
Welcome & Keynote
11 a.m. —1 p.m. PST
Workshops
Wednesday, Oct. 28
9 a.m. —10:15 a.m. PST
Storytelling Hour
10:45 a.m.—12 p.m. PST
Cultivating Connections
12:30—2:30 p.m. PST
Workshops
Thursday, Oct. 29
9—11 a.m. PST
Workshops
12:30—2:30 p.m. PST
Workshops
Friday, Oct. 30
9:00—10:30 a.m. PST
Closing Keynote
11 a.m.—12:30 p.m. PST
Cultivating Connections
Sponsors
Thank you to our 2020 Bridge Conference Sponsors! Please contact Andrea Fullerton to discuss sponsorship opportunities for 2021.
Questions?
Please contact:
bridge@schoolsoutwashington.org
These words represent the values we hope to bring forward and incorporate throughout the Bridge Conference experience. As the spaces in which we connect and collaborate began to shift for 2020, our Bridge Advisory Committee grounded ourselves in these values as we reimagined what Bridge could look like on a virtual platform.