Sharing What Works: Sustainability Models and Plans

I attended a great meeting yesterday where a cohort of MA 21st CCLC Project Coordinators shared their sustainability plans. Skillfully facilitated by Beth Newell, folks were able to share what inspires them as they work in their communities to sustain their quality afterschool programming.

Barbara Sargent, Worcester's 21st CCLC Coordinator, shared a model created by Harvard's Public Education Leadership Project (PELP) called the PELP Coherence Framework. This framework is designed to "help leaders identify the key elements that support a district-wide improvement strategy and to bring these elements into a coherent and integrated relationship. School district leaders leverage this framework to develop strategies that work towards improving student performance throughout the district."

And how does this relate to sustaining afterschool programs? As ably described by Ms. Sargent, this framework contains all the components that are necessary to successfully operate quality afterschool programs as well. It has an added benefit of building off the educational trajectory that starts in the school day so that young people can benefit from a great educational experience after school.

Exciting work is being done across the MA 21st CCLC sites to sustain this important work. Your ideas, plans, and models will continued to be shared here, in the newsletter and in meetings so that we can all continue to learn what works!