Last week, we rolled out a new look at afterschoolalliance.org. Don’t worry, all the resources you’ve come to expect on policy, research, advocacy, funding and communications are still here – but in a new and improved format.
We’ve worked hard to make it easier to find the information you need, with brand new search features to make our best research more accessible and a revamped Afterschool Toolbox full of practical tools to strengthen (or start!) a program. We've also added new visuals to make your visits to our site more enjoyable.
There will be a few hiccups here and there during this transition. We thank you in advance for your patience. If you notice something awry while you're exploring, post a comment or drop us a line at info@afterschoolalliance.org so we can address it right away.
We hope you enjoy surfing around the new afterschoolalliance.org, and we want to hear from you! Do let us know what you think in the comments section below, and provide any suggestions you have for our site. We will be rolling out more improvements throughout the summer!
The first week of April is National Library Week, with today being National Library Workers Day. Take the opportunity today to visit your local library or send a message thanking the staff and administrators for all the work they do in your community! Across the country,...
BY: Charlotte Steinecke 04/03/18
Today we’re excited to take part in celebrating Absolutely Incredible Kid Day® (AIKD)! AIKD is a national holiday that lifts up the kids and teens in our lives, and it was founded by Camp Fire in 1997. While we’ve enjoyed spotlighting the great work done at Camp Fire programs...
BY: Faith Savaiano 03/15/18
By Heidi Ham, vice president of programs and strategy at National AfterSchool Association. For the more than 4 million English language learner (ELL) students who attend public schools nationwide, it’s more critical than ever to literacy skill development support both in and out...
BY: Guest Blogger 02/05/18
By Sarah McKinney, Content Marketing Producer at Encore.org’s Gen2Gen campaign. Diana Amatucci volunteers after school and during the summers at her local Boys and Girls Club in Charlottesville Virginia. A retired teacher, Amatucci knows that kids need more champions...
BY: Guest Blogger 10/24/17
By Jesse Lovejoy, director of STEAM Education for the San Francisco 49ers and managing partner of EDU Academy. More information on 49ers STEAM programming is available here. On its best days, informal and afterschool education is cool. It’s different. It lights fires. For many...
BY: Guest Blogger 09/29/17
“Looking back, I don't know where I would have been without afterschool pushing me [and] showing me right from wrong." - Ashley, After-School All-Stars, AFT Tele-Town Hall On June 12, in a show of united concern and support, the education, afterschool, community school, and health...
BY: Ursula Helminski 06/22/17
By Sara Beanblossom, Director of Communications and Special Events at the Indiana Afterschool Network As part of our program provider advocacy initiative, the Indiana Afterschool Network is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to share stories about the power of afterschool....
BY: Guest Blogger 06/13/17
If you’re a committed mid-career out-of-school time professional who’s looking for your next professional development opportunity, the National Afterschool Matters (NASM) Fellowship could be right for you. The NASM Fellowship is a two-year professional and leadership development...
BY: Leah Silverberg 05/11/17
This Afterschool Professionals Appreciation Week, we’re celebrating you: the educators who dedicate your careers to teaching and supporting youth during the out-of-school hours. To highlight the expertise of a few leading professionals in our field, and foster widespread sharing of best...
BY: Charlotte Steinecke 04/27/17
From April 24 to 28, it's Afterschool Professionals Appreciation Week! Sponsored by the National Afterschool Association, the week "is a joint effort of community partners, afterschool programs, youth and child care workers, and individuals who have committed to declaring...
BY: Charlotte Steinecke 04/24/17
When Sheree Vodicka first heard of legislation passed in California to establish healthy out-of-school time (OST) programs, she realized there may be an opportunity to replicate that in North Carolina. As a recipient of the YMCA of the USA’s Pioneering Healthier Communities grant...
BY: Faith Savaiano 04/06/18
By Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH, Director, Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio. Did you know that 1 in 4 kids drink no water in a day? Latino kids drink less water than their white peers. They also are more likely to perceive tap water as unsafe, and drink more sugary drinks, our research...
BY: Guest Blogger 03/30/18
By Crystal FitzSimmons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at Food Research & Action Center. Hooray! It’s National Nutrition Month. Time to celebrate the important role that afterschool programs are and can play in supporting good nutrition among the children they...
BY: Guest Blogger 03/23/18
We have a looming national security emergency, and it may not be the one that first comes to mind. 71 percent of Americans between 17 and 24 years of age— or 24 million of the 34 million young people in our country—are ineligible to serve in the United States military. The...
BY: Arielle Kahn 03/16/18
By Nila Cobb. This is the second part of a two-part question-and-answer session with Nila Cobb, healthy lifestyles specialist and assistant director of the West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network. You can read part one here. In the second part, Nila describes the challenges and...
BY: Guest Blogger 03/12/18
Opioid addiction plagues our country, deeply impacting adults and children alike. We at the Afterschool Alliance believe that afterschool has a huge part to play in mitigating this crisis through preventative measures. On Wednesday, February 27, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA)...
BY: Arielle Kahn 03/02/18
By Nila Cobb. Welcome to the first of a two-part question-and-answer session with Nila Cobb, healthy lifestyles specialist and assistant director of the West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network. In the first part, Nila describes the earliest signs of the opioid crisis impacting her community...
BY: Guest Blogger 02/27/18
In recent years, many states across the country have started to seek government support to enact policies aimed at increasing healthy practices in out-of-school time environments. While many of these efforts are just beginning, few advocates have seen as much immediate success as the Alliance...
BY: Faith Savaiano 01/29/18
At the beginning of each year, most of us set personal goals that we would like to accomplish. Although the list of New Year’s resolutions vary from person to person, eating better and exercising more are two of the most popular resolutions we make. As we start the year, let’s not only...
BY: Tiereny Lloyd 01/08/18
By Daniel W. Hatcher, MPH, director of Community Partnerships at Alliance for a Healthier Generation.This article was original published on December 5, 2017 on the Healthy Out-of-School Time New & Notable blog. Partnerships between school and afterschool educators are essential to...
BY: Guest Blogger 12/14/17
The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) recently launched a new online toolkit dedicated to providing principals and other school leaders with the tools they need to help support and expand quality afterschool and summer learning programs. Principals can play an...
BY: Leah Silverberg 03/19/18
The future is not about the children – it is the children. It is about time we listen to their authentic, genuine voices. They are thoughtful, they are creative, they are resilient, and they have more at stake than the rest of us, because the policies we adopt and the choices we collectively...
BY: Jodi Grant 03/14/18
From February 22 to 24, Orlando, Fla. was alive with the magic of afterschool, as nearly 1,000 out-of-school time professionals convened for the 21st annual Beyond School Hours Conference. The conference, hosted by the team at Foundations, Inc., draws attendees from across the country to...
BY: Alexis Steines 03/01/18
By Maya Irvine. Maya is a freshman at Camdenton High School and was named a Youth Afterschool Ambassador in the fall for the 2017-2018 school year. Maya has attended Camdenton FIRST LASER Robotics program for the past six years. Her blog post highlights the science,...
BY: Guest Blogger 02/23/18
“If you’re passionate about anything, there really is no limit to what you can do,” says Lemond Brown, president and CEO of Swaliga Foundation. “That passion is contagious. People want to know ‘Well, why are they so passionate about that? How can I have that same...
BY: Charlotte Steinecke 02/16/18
By Kaleb Robertson. Kaleb is a senior at Green Bay West High School and was recently named a Youth Afterschool Ambassador for 2016-17 by the Afterschool Alliance. He has been attending the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Green Bay afterschool program for more than five years. This letter...
BY: Guest Blogger 01/11/18
By Roger Figueroa, program coordinator at Latin American Youth Center - Maryland Multicultural Youth Center. The transition for rising ninth graders is one filled with twists, turns, pitfalls, and barriers: the new and often larger environment, changes in academic responsibility,...
BY: Guest Blogger 01/05/18
By Harli Jo McKinney Welcome to our new blog series introducing the inaugural class of Youth Ambassadors! Building on the success of the Afterschool Ambassadors program, the Youth Ambassadors program connects five young people with alumni Afterschool Ambassadors to serve as...
BY: Guest Blogger 01/04/18
As the Afterschool Alliance team wraps up the last of our 2017 to-do items, we reflect back on a year that can only be described as ‘eventful’! News from the Hill In March, the president proposed complete elimination of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers...
BY: Faith Savaiano 12/22/17
Through our Afterschool Ambassadors program, every year we recruit a cohort of program providers and advocates of special distinction and provide them with training, technical support, and modest funding to complete projects that raise the profile of afterschool in their communities. This year,...
BY: Charlotte Steinecke 11/10/17
By Kaleb Robertson. Kaleb is a senior at Green Bay West High School and was recently named a Youth Afterschool Ambassador for 2016-17 by the Afterschool Alliance. He has been attending the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Green Bay afterschool program for more than five years. This letter...
BY: Guest Blogger 01/11/18
By Kevin Hamilton, vice president for communications at the Student Conservation Association. Welcome to the first post in our new blog series about the vital role that out-of-school time programs play in the social, emotional, and character development that youth need to navigate a complex,...
BY: Guest Blogger 12/19/17
By Daniel W. Hatcher, MPH, director of Community Partnerships at Alliance for a Healthier Generation.This article was original published on December 5, 2017 on the Healthy Out-of-School Time New & Notable blog. Partnerships between school and afterschool educators are essential to...
BY: Guest Blogger 12/14/17
By Sarah McKinney, Content Marketing Producer at Encore.org’s Gen2Gen campaign. Diana Amatucci volunteers after school and during the summers at her local Boys and Girls Club in Charlottesville Virginia. A retired teacher, Amatucci knows that kids need more champions...
BY: Guest Blogger 10/24/17
By Rachel Willis, research project manager at the Kansas Enrichment Network. After celebrating early successes, the Spartan Explorers afterschool program will continue through the 2017-2018 school year. Begun in January 2017, the program is a partnership between Emporia High School and the...
BY: Guest Blogger 08/01/17
By Diego Uriburu, co-founder and executive director of Identity. By age 16, Elam had been out of school for two years. Although he’d dropped out of school the first time, he knew he needed to turn his life around and that the best way to do that was to complete his education. Going...
BY: Guest Blogger 07/19/17
By Rachel Gwaltney, Director of Policy and Partnerships at the National Summer Learning Association. Rachel leads development and implementation of services, projects and partnerships that strengthen summer learning policy and build capacity of state and national leaders and...
BY: Guest Blogger 07/12/17
By Aaron Short, assistant head of staff at 21st Cranston Community Learning Center Bain +2/Kidventure Afterschool Program. Aaron attended the Youth Session of the 2017 Afterschool for All Challenge and spoke to his members of Congress about the impact of afterschool on his...
BY: Guest Blogger 07/11/17
By Susanna Pradhan, an alumna of ourBRIDGE for KIDS in Charlotte, N.C. Susanna is a rising sophomore at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Afterschool for All Challenge in Washington, D.C. as part of the Youth Track. In 1998, I was born to a Bhutanese...
BY: Guest Blogger 06/23/17
By Sara Beanblossom, Director of Communications and Special Events at the Indiana Afterschool Network As part of our program provider advocacy initiative, the Indiana Afterschool Network is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to share stories about the power of afterschool....
BY: Guest Blogger 06/13/17
By Nila Cobb. Welcome to the first of a two-part question-and-answer session with Nila Cobb, healthy lifestyles specialist and assistant director of the West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network. In the first part, Nila describes the earliest signs of the opioid crisis impacting her community...
BY: Guest Blogger 02/27/18
Through our Afterschool Ambassadors program, every year we recruit a cohort of program providers and advocates of special distinction and provide them with training, technical support, and modest funding to complete projects that raise the profile of afterschool in their communities. This year,...
BY: Charlotte Steinecke 11/10/17
By Sarah McKinney, Content Marketing Producer at Encore.org’s Gen2Gen campaign. Diana Amatucci volunteers after school and during the summers at her local Boys and Girls Club in Charlottesville Virginia. A retired teacher, Amatucci knows that kids need more champions...
BY: Guest Blogger 10/24/17
For many middle and high school students, community service is a requirement for graduation—one that afterschool programs often assist with, giving students a chance to give back through volunteering, community beautification efforts, and tutoring younger students. As a result, afterschool...
BY: Charlotte Steinecke 10/13/17
By Diego Uriburu, co-founder and executive director of Identity. By age 16, Elam had been out of school for two years. Although he’d dropped out of school the first time, he knew he needed to turn his life around and that the best way to do that was to complete his education. Going...
BY: Guest Blogger 07/19/17
By Aaron Short, assistant head of staff at 21st Cranston Community Learning Center Bain +2/Kidventure Afterschool Program. Aaron attended the Youth Session of the 2017 Afterschool for All Challenge and spoke to his members of Congress about the impact of afterschool on his...
BY: Guest Blogger 07/11/17
By Thomas Azzarella, director of the Alaska Afterschool Network. This blog was originally published on the Alaska Afterschool Blog on June 6. Nearly two-thirds of Alaska’s cities, towns, and villages are accessible only by plane or boat, which makes having a strong aviation...
BY: Guest Blogger 06/19/17
Despite a wealth of research showing the importance of afterschool and widespread popularity with parents, students, teachers and community leaders, programs have never been more threatened. This week the president decided to double down on his call to eliminate afterschool funding in his 2018...
BY: Jodi Grant 05/26/17
The recent national dialogue and policy landscape has exposed children of all ages to complex discussions about immigration, religion, diversity, safety, and community. In a climate of uncertainty, students can end up feeling frustrated, hurt, alienated, or confused if these often-taboo subjects...
BY: Jillian Luchner 04/06/17
This post is presented as part of the Afterschool Spotlight blog series, which tells the stories of the parents, participants, and providers of afterschool programs. This post is also an installment in our Afterschool & Law Enforcement series, which explores the ways...
BY: Elizabeth Tish 03/24/17
By Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH, Director, Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio. Did you know that 1 in 4 kids drink no water in a day? Latino kids drink less water than their white peers. They also are more likely to perceive tap water as unsafe, and drink more sugary drinks, our research...
BY: Guest Blogger 03/30/18
We have a looming national security emergency, and it may not be the one that first comes to mind. 71 percent of Americans between 17 and 24 years of age— or 24 million of the 34 million young people in our country—are ineligible to serve in the United States military. The...
BY: Arielle Kahn 03/16/18
By Nila Cobb. This is the second part of a two-part question-and-answer session with Nila Cobb, healthy lifestyles specialist and assistant director of the West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network. You can read part one here. In the second part, Nila describes the challenges and...
BY: Guest Blogger 03/12/18
Disney’s “Black Panther” not only gave boys and girls a few new heroes to look up to: it also gave them inspiration to learn more about science, technology, engineering and math. Now, Disney is helping those kids in real life by donating $1 million of the “Black...
BY: Shaun Gray 03/07/18
By Nila Cobb. Welcome to the first of a two-part question-and-answer session with Nila Cobb, healthy lifestyles specialist and assistant director of the West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network. In the first part, Nila describes the earliest signs of the opioid crisis impacting her community...
BY: Guest Blogger 02/27/18
Last week I attended a Title I Conference in Philadelphia. The “Title I” name may be as generic as they come, but it is one of the most important Titles in education policy. The purpose of Title I, which was recently reauthorized in 2015 in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), is...
BY: Jillian Luchner 02/15/18
By Roger Figueroa, program coordinator at Latin American Youth Center - Maryland Multicultural Youth Center. The transition for rising ninth graders is one filled with twists, turns, pitfalls, and barriers: the new and often larger environment, changes in academic responsibility,...
BY: Guest Blogger 01/05/18
By Kevin Hamilton, vice president for communications at the Student Conservation Association. Welcome to the first post in our new blog series about the vital role that out-of-school time programs play in the social, emotional, and character development that youth need to navigate a complex,...
BY: Guest Blogger 12/19/17
25 years ago, riots exploded in South Central Los Angeles in the wake of the acquittal of four police officers charged with beating a prostrate taxi driver named Rodney King. The event called attention to issues of race and economic inequities, one element of which was cutbacks in the L.A. school...
BY: Matt Freeman 12/05/17
By Sarah McKinney, Content Marketing Producer at Encore.org’s Gen2Gen campaign. Diana Amatucci volunteers after school and during the summers at her local Boys and Girls Club in Charlottesville Virginia. A retired teacher, Amatucci knows that kids need more champions...
BY: Guest Blogger 10/24/17
From February 22 to 24, Orlando, Fla. was alive with the magic of afterschool, as nearly 1,000 out-of-school time professionals convened for the 21st annual Beyond School Hours Conference. The conference, hosted by the team at Foundations, Inc., draws attendees from across the country to...
BY: Alexis Steines 03/01/18
The Trump administration has zeroed out the budget for afterschool for the second year in the row. We're heartbroken by the news, but the budget battle isn't over yet and we're turning heartbreak into action. This Valentine's Day, use the resources on the We Love...
BY: Charlotte Steinecke 02/13/18
From April 24 to 28, it's Afterschool Professionals Appreciation Week! Sponsored by the National Afterschool Association, the week "is a joint effort of community partners, afterschool programs, youth and child care workers, and individuals who have committed to declaring...
BY: Charlotte Steinecke 04/24/17
The recent national dialogue and policy landscape has exposed children of all ages to complex discussions about immigration, religion, diversity, safety, and community. In a climate of uncertainty, students can end up feeling frustrated, hurt, alienated, or confused if these often-taboo subjects...
BY: Jillian Luchner 04/06/17
By Meg Gneiting, Marketing Manager at BOOST Collaborative. "Barbara Boxer Keynote Announcement: BOOST Conference 2017" was originally published on the BOOST Breakfast Club Blog. It is with great pleasure that we announce the 2017 BOOST Conference Keynote Speaker, former Sen. Barbara...
BY: Guest Blogger 02/28/17
By Rachel Willis, Research Project Manager at the Kansas Enrichment Network. We all know the statistics from the last decade. Employment growth in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) sectors is occurring at a faster rate than the growth rate projected for all occupations...
BY: Guest Blogger 02/10/17
The Maryland Out of School Time Network held their seventh annual statewide conference on January 5 & 6 in Ellicott City, Md., celebrating the community of out-of-school time practitioners that MOST affectionately calls “OST Heroes.” The two-day conference was jam-packed with...
BY: Tiereny Lloyd 01/30/17
This month, elected officials around the country step into office. This is an important time to reach out to your newly elected officials and remind them of afterschool’s role in your community, district or state. Offer to be a resource on the issue, and invite them to come see your program...
BY: Elizabeth Tish 01/03/17
On October 17, I joined leaders from across the country in Las Vegas to discuss the opportunity gap. I learned more about what organizations like the Children’s Leadership Council, Children’s Defense Fund, the National Council of La Raza and many more are doing to close the...
BY: Jodi Grant 12/05/16
This past July, the U.S. Department of Education held the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) 2016 Summer Institute in Phoenix, AZ, where presenters shared their valuable experiences and insights about how to develop, implement and sustain successful 21st CCLC afterschool...
BY: Elizabeth Tish 09/27/16