Views from VISTA special: Lighting up partnerships for afterschool in Arizona

By Angel Cancino, outreach coordinator with the Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence.

My name is Angel Cancino and I am an outreach coordinator with The Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence (AzCASE). I have developed a keen spirit of service working and volunteering in the nonprofit and social sector for the past nine years. I came to AzCASE as a second-year AmeriCorps VISTA member.

My first year as a VISTA was as a Capacity Building Specialist with the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, where I was exposed to over 1,000 nonprofit member organizations of the more than 20,000 nonprofit organizations in Arizona, including AzCASE, one of 50 statewide afterschool networks. Now in my VISTA position as an Outreach Coordinator with AzCASE, I work together with our team in developing community partnerships, implementing our communication strategy, and helping to create a sustainability plan for our organization.

One of my goals as a VISTA with AzCASE is to take our organization’s mission of promoting accessible, high-quality expanded learning opportunities for all Arizona children and youth, and help bring our services to our state’s rural and low-resourced communities. With this goal in mind, I helped develop a partnership between AzCASE and the statewide organization Arizona Town Hall. Arizona Town Hall educates, engages, connects, and empowers people to resolve important issues through consensus, using a process based on respectful dialogue that values diverse perspectives, builds relationships, and fosters leadership development.

On October 24, AzCASE and Arizona Town Hall sponsored three statewide “Future Leaders Town Halls” across Arizona, including rural areas such as Casa Grande and Flagstaff. With these events as part of the Lights On Afterschool celebration, our goal was to bring attention to the value of out-of-school time programming as a significant component of this year’s Arizona Town Hall topic of Strong Families, Thriving Children. 

More than 100 middle and high school youth came together to discuss the topic and the role that afterschool plays in creating strong families and thriving children. These statewide events contributed to AzCASE’s mission to increase communication and awareness about the role of high-quality expanded learning opportunities. These youth town halls were also part of the Arizona Town Hall’s statewide Community Town Halls, designed specifically for an up-close, local look and solution-based conversation.

And we need solutions for our youth. Nationwide, Arizona has the highest rate for percentage of children birth to 17 years who have experienced two or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). ACEs are traumatic events that take place in children’s lives before age 18 that harm their developing brains and bodies.

Protective factors for youth such as positive relationships and social and emotional competences can prevent children from experiencing adversity and can protect against many of the negative health and life outcomes even after adversity has occurred. Out-of-school time programs provide these strong tools and spaces for youth development.

As we heard directly from the youth voices, out-of-school time programs are a significant component of what makes strong families and thriving children. AzCASE is proud to be the organization in Arizona that is leading these advocacy efforts, bringing the community together, and giving youth a platform to talk about these issues. 

Personally, I feel very proud to have been part of an amazing team that put together these events for our community and youth while helping AzCASE develop more than 15 new partnerships with local government, school districts, and other nonprofit organizations.

Here are a couple of the consensus statements from the big group discussions answering the following question:

What role do afterschool programs play in creating strong families and thriving children?

Flagstaff, AZ

Afterschool programs can make or break our children and families. They provide safe spaces and opportunities for children to learn and grow. They provide opportunities that prepare youth for further education, including both formal education as well as life and communication skills.

They allow children and youth to make friends and to have additional emotional support in a safe environment where they can share challenges that may be facing them or their families. They create structure, discipline and additional opportunities.

Afterschool programs allow parents who need to work the security of knowing their children are well cared for and they provide children with additional educational support such as tutoring and homework assistance. We need to make sure to provide adequate transportation to these programs because afterschool programs help to make happy children and a strong families. They are essential.

Casa Grande, AZ

Afterschool programs play a big role in creating strong families and thriving children. Out-of-school time programs offer children opportunities to be more active in sports, help with homework, and engage in productive activities to learn valuable things rather than being home alone and unsupervised.

The relationships built in afterschool programs are a positive influence on kids. Educators as well as peers help instill a sense of determination and self-discipline on all children participating in afterschool.

A very important reason why afterschool programs are instrumental for creating strong families is that they offer a support system for those going through adversity. Children can get involved with activities in a safe environment that distracts them form issues going on at home. The relationships between youth and the staff are great for children who are looking for an adult to talk to outside of home. Children can meet amazing and supportive friendships that will always be by their side and help them in times that they need it most.

Parents experience less stress knowing that their children have a safe place to go afterschool. Parents can also make relationships with other parents who take their kids to afterschool programs and share similar experiences talking to each other.

At the conclusion of the events, youth were asked to write their “I Will” cards.

These are some of the “I Will” statements that we gathered from the youth:

• Spread what I learned today. I will tell my teachers and my friends because some people have more connections than others.
• I will take part in afterschool programs and do more afterschool activities in general
• I will advocate for myself and let others know that there are programs that can help. I will do a better job at making more choices about my future and be that someone people can talk to.

News coverage of the events from statewide media can be found at the following links:

Arizona Horizon PBS - Lights on Afterschool events for after-school programs
Arizona Daily Sun - Town hall gathers youth, community members for strong families
KTAR 92.3 FM  - The Think Tank with Mike O'Neil - Building Strong Families in Arizona