|
A Citywide Approach to Building and Sustaining Out-of-School Time Learning Opportunities
by Lane Russell
 Throughout the United States, cities are working to expand and improve the quality of out-of-school time (OST) programs. What may be even more striking, however, is the novel way in which cities are doing this: rather than improving programs one-by-one, they are developing systems that bring together municipal leaders, schools, parks departments, community groups, private funders and a host of others to make the most effective use of their mutual resources and improve OST citywide.
Since 2005, The Wallace Foundation has been working in selected cities to develop coordinated efforts for improving and expanding out-of-school time programming, especially for children who need it most.
The big lesson emerging from this work — detailed in a Wallace publication called “A Place to Grow and Learn: A Citywide Approach to Building and Sustaining Out-of-School Time Learning Opportunities” — is that six “action elements” are essential to coordinated efforts. These elements consist of committed leadership, a public or private coordinating entity, multi-year planning, reliable information, expanding participation and a commitment to quality.
The work in the five cities in the Wallace initiative — Boston, Chicago, New York, Providence and Washington, D.C. — seeks to build each of these six elements. Progress to date suggests that other communities can develop and sustain citywide OST opportunities when they keep these six action elements in mind.
Click here to download the entire special report.
|