Afterschool Alliance Promotes Three Key Resources

Free Promotional Game Exclusive to First 350 Respondents - Apply Before July 3
For a limited time, Sports Camp Federation is offering a free trial package of the new family game coming out this fall called Guess What I Am. It is a modern twist on the classic guessing game, targeted to children age five through 12. The game includes 30 different character picture frames with four different playing games. Each free trial package will include the Guess What I Am retail game for the program, a program/game guidelines letter, and 50 picture frame magnets for children to take home. There will also be five Rubik's cubes included for older children to use during program time. Programs with children age five to seven and eight to 12 should apply before July 3. To apply for the promotion, contact Katie Logan at klogan@scfsports.com or 847/418-2015.

Program to Combat Child Obesity
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, whose mission is to stop the increase of childhood obesity by 2010, recently introduced The Healthy Schools Program (HSP). The program's goal is to improve nutrition, physical activity, and staff wellness in America's schools. The program offers tools and resources to help schools improve access to healthier foods, increase opportunities for physical activity, and establish staff wellness programs. The HSP would like to see this initiative taken beyond regular school hours and into afterschool programs' meal plans. For more information on The Healthy Schools Program, call 1-888-KID-HLTH.

Literacy Program to Prevent Summer Learning Loss
Reader's Theater is offering a free resource to afterschool providers to help boost literacy skills through "edu-tainment" in the form of play-acting. The "Take Center Stage" playbooks provide an interactive environment for youth to read and learn. "Mini, the Super Watermelon," is available free for download and includes game instructions, playing cards, and playing tips. To access the materials, visit their website.

Text courtesy of the Afterschool Alliance.

Youth PSA Competition - Deadline August 31, 2008

Looking for a way to involve youth this summer? The Afterschool Alliance reports on their website that "the By Kids for Kids and DoSomething.org are encouraging youth to discover the social issue or cause that matters most to them and then "Do Something" to raise awareness about it. Youth are invited to create Public Service Announcements (PSAs) for the "Advertise Your Cause: Media Challenge. Organizers will award the most clever and powerful PSA that has the broadest impact..

Contest winners will receive $10,000 and national media exposure for the winning PSA. The deadline is August 31. The competition is open to students ages five through 19 who have not yet graduated from high school.".

Text courtesy of the Afterschool Alliance.

NIOST Announces its Annual Summer Seminar

The National Institute for Out of School Time (NIOST) will host its annual summer seminar in Boston, Massachusetts on July 14-17, 2008. Seminar topics include Advancing School, Afterschool and Community Partnerships; Quality Advisor Training; System Building; and Afterschool Program Assessment System. The seminars are in-depth, research-based events designed to empower providers with the tools necessary to elevate their programs. For more information, visit National Institute for Out of School Time.

Listing courtesy of the Afterschool Alliance.


Editor's Note: Interested parties are encouraged to register as soon as possible as space is limited.

Lawrence Music Afterschool Program Profiled

"For many at-risk youth in Lawrence, the violin offers a path to a gang-free life. Kids are "in gangs because they lack a sense of identity and belonging," Marcia Lier, director of Community Strings of Lawrence, told the Boston Globe. "A lot of kids in our program have difficult home lives, but [playing the violin] builds such self-confidence, such pride. I've seen some big-time attitudes fall by the wayside." Community Strings offers free violin lessons before, during and after school, on Saturdays and throughout the summer to more than 75 students in second through eighth grades. The program teaches students to give back to the community as well, scheduling performances in local hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers."

Listing courtesy of the Afterschool Alliance.


Editor's note: This is an example of an arts-based afterschool program and how the arts provide engaging and enriching alternatives for the Commonwealth's young people that can make a real difference in their lives.

New Grants Database on Corporate Donations Announced

The NonProfit Times and NOZASEARCH recently unveiled a searchable database of more than 4,000 $1 million-plus corporate donations. The free service requires no registration and individuals can search for specific businesses or create an instant list by location or cause.

Listing courtesy of the Afterschool Alliance.

Harvard Family Research Project Publishes New Issue Brief

A new issue brief from the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) highlights ten years of research demonstrating the value of afterschool programs, and poses a series of forward-looking questions for program providers.

"After School Programs in the 21st Century: Their Potential and What It Takes to Achieve It," by Priscilla M.D. Little, Christopher Wimer and Heather B. Weiss is the tenth in HFRP's series of issue briefs covering a variety of topics related to afterschool research and evaluations. It highlights key research on afterschool programs' impact on academic success; social and emotional development; drug, alcohol and sex prevention; and health and wellness.

The brief identifies key building blocks for program success, including quality programming, sustained participation, partnerships with schools and community organizations, family participation and more. It concludes by framing a series of questions for the afterschool community. Among them: how to ensure that effective afterschool practices are broadly implemented, and how programs can work with schools and community partners to "ensure a complementary array of learning and developmental supports."

The brief is part of HFRP's "Issues and Opportunities in Out-of-School Time Evaluation" series.

Reprinted from the Afterschool Alliance.

Afterschool and Family Involvement

Last month, the Afterschool Alliance issued a new Issue Brief, Afterschool: Supporting Family Involvement in Schools that talks about the natural link afterschool programs provides to parents. Research indicates that parental involvement makes a real difference in how their children perform in school. Check it out!

Afterschool Alliance Issues 2007 Year in Review

The Afterschool Alliance helps to remind us all what strides the field of afterschool made in 2007 by issuing 2007 Afterschool Year in Review: A Year of Challenges and Growth. Released earlier this year, this document profiles increases in afterschool funding, both nationally and in various states. It also provides sections on the latest research that demonstrates the effectiveness of afterschool programs and how support for afterschool is growing.

Important Resource: Afterschool Alliance's Issue Briefs

Looking for information to help make your case about the importance of afterschool? Look no further than the Afterschool Alliance. They have developed 31 different Issue Briefs on a range of topics - all related to afterschool such as arts and afterschool; afterschool and school success among many others. Check out their comprehensive listing where new Issue Briefs come out regularly and previous ones are also updated.

How can these be used? In a variety of ways: when you are preparing your grant proposals, presentations in front of multiple stakeholders in your community, background for the media, and handouts at community or other events.

Afterschool Alliance Reports on Congressional Briefing on Afterschool in Rural Communities

The Afterschool Alliance, in its Afterschool Advocate, Volume 9, No., reported on the following Congressional Briefing on Afterschool in Rural Communities. It is excerpted in its entirety below.

"One-fifth of the nation's children attend public schools in rural communities - areas that persistently have the highest poverty rates, and where children often face social isolation, lack of positive role models and scarce opportunities. Afterschool programs can make all the difference in helping children overcome these barriers to success. On February 11, the Afterschool Alliance and partners sponsored a Congressional briefing at which experts discussed the ways afterschool programs help children in rural communities, and the challenges rural communities face in providing programs. Experts used the event to urge Congress to increase funding for rural afterschool programs.

Mark Shriver, Vice President and Managing Director for U.S. Programs at Save the Children, discussed the challenges facing rural children and how Save the Children's programs provide early childhood education services, literacy support, and encourage physical activity and good nutrition. Shriver said rural children have higher rates of obesity, 40 percent do not have access to public transportation, one in four lives in a house with no telephone, and one in five lives in poverty. "We heard about the potential cuts to the 21st Century program and we are hopeful that this doesn't happen, and in fact [funding] does increase," he said. "Poor kids in rural America get shortchanged in so many ways."

Jimmy Cunningham, Superintendent of Danville Public Schools in Arkansas, stressed the tremendous need for the enrichment opportunities afterschool programs provide among children in his district. Programs also fulfill a more basic need, providing a daily snack because many students are required to eat an early lunch to accommodate schedule and capacity constraints in school buildings. That leaves them hungry at the end of the school day, he said.

Cunningham said that most afterschool programs struggle for funding, and many of the smaller districts do not have 21st Century Community Learning Center grants because they lack the time and staff to apply for them.

In rural Maine, one of the biggest challenges facing afterschool programs is transportation. "If we don't have buses to move children, we don't have children," Charles Harrington, Director of Maine Sea Coast Mission/The EdGE, told Congressional staffers.

Harrington's program plays a pivotal role in the lives of the young people who attend it - without afterschool activities, they would have nothing to do. The program strives to "embed" afterschool in the school day's activities. Students go mountain biking through blueberry fields or sea kayaking in the same waters in which their parents harvest lobster, and then they calculate the time and distance of their trips. The program involves children in positive risk taking, teaches skills necessary in the 21st century workplace, and brings improvements in reading and math.

"The people working in afterschool programs are creating opportunities and changing lives," said Afterschool Alliance Executive Director Jodi Grant. "One third of programs funded by 21st Century Community Learning Centers are in rural communities."

The briefing was co-sponsored by the Afterschool Alliance, the American Association of School Administrators, Save the Children, The National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition and The National Center for Family Literacy.

"I can't think of a better way to spend money than on kids," said Cunningham to the capacity crowd. "Please, please look into more money for afterschool funding."

A newly updated Brief on rural afterschool issues is available from the Afterschool Alliance."

Afterschool Alliance Issues Position Paper on 21st CCLC Programs

In January 2006, the Afterschool Alliance issued a paper that talks about the 21st CCLC's and provides some important examples of its effectiveness across the country. While this paper is 2 years old, it does provide some relevant information that may be of use to 21st CCLC Coordinators. Check it out.