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City Platform Section II, Step 9:
"Establish a local afterschool coalition or task force, including both city agencies and community-based providers, that works to create quality standards for afterschool programs."
An estimated eight million school children between the ages of five and fourteen go home to an empty house on a regular basis. In response to these realities, many communities have created afterschool programs - commonly programs before and after school as well as during periods when school is not in session - to promote learning, keep children out of trouble, and meet the needs of working parents.
City Examples
Grand Rapids, Mich.
In Grand Rapids, Mayor John Logie and the president of the school board launched a project to develop standards for high-quality afterschool programs that had the full ownership and support of providers and the community. They created a two-tiered governance structure to carry out this effort, including a high-level Leadership Council to guide and oversee the project's work and an action team to make recommendations to this Council.
In the end, the group agreed on 32 standards of care for afterschool programs in Grand Rapids. They also negotiated with the state to eliminate licensing hurdles for afterschool programs in middle schools in Grand Rapids since programs were required to meet the city's afterschool standards. The YEF Institute provided technical assistance to support these efforts.
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Florence, S.C.
In November 2004, Florence Mayor Frank Willis convened a Mayor's Task Force to Prevent Juvenile Crime to address an outbreak of youth violence and help youth become healthy and productive citizens.
This initiative brought together a group of top leaders in the community, including the chief of police, the city manager, the superintendent of schools, the president of the chamber of commerce, the executive director of public housing, and a representative of the Faith Based Coalition.
Through an assessment of needs and resources, the Task Force found that the areas of the city with the highest juvenile crime and fewest out-of-school resources for youth were the public housing communities. By working with the police and public housing authority, Florence leaders are addressing real social needs and are beginning see positive results among older middle school youth.
Moreover, they are focused on making long-term, systematic reforms to coordinate in-school and after-school programming, improve professional development for afterschool providers, and expand the supply of high-quality out-of-school time resources.
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Resources
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