Success Stories

Afterschool for All partners have used the campaign to build support for their own efforts and to move afterschool forward.  Share ways in which you have used Afterschool for All to build support for afterschool in your community. We would love to share your experiences with the Afterschool for All community.

Check out examples of cases where partners have successfully used Afterschool for All to:

• Unite their organization around a common cause
• Connect with likeminded individuals and institutions
• Leverage support from local institutions
• Influence policy makers
• Generate extensive dialogue about afterschool
• Increase constituent partner's level of participation

Reasons that prominent individuals and organizations have signed on to Afterschool for All include:

• Gaining visibility and recognition for supporting a popular cause
• Doing the right thing

Value & Uses of Afterschool for All at the Local Level

1. As a uniting focus and rallying point for loosely affiliated organizations giving them a common cause.
   Examples:
   • Judith Vaughan-Prather, the Executive Director of Montgomery County Commission for Women, wrote the following about Afterschool for All "I think that this is a great way for our commissions to easily support an important initiative, to use our collective strength, and to achieve some visibility for CFW's at the same time." To date, more than a dozen women's commissions have signed on to the project.
   • Don Crary, the State Director at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, set out to secure the support of more than 40 Kids Count state network agencies. When this was written, more than half of them have signed on. Mr. Crary has indicated that many of his state network directors regularly visit the Afterschool for All website to see which Kids Count agencies have not yet signed on so that they can encourage them to do so.
2. As a resource for finding likeminded organizations and individuals in order to build local partnerships.
   Example:
   • Change4Change, a New Orleans based youth serving organization, is working to form a coalition of local Afterschool for All partners that will serve as a resource for youth in need of afterschool services. The coalition, which they have named Change Point Coalition, will collect and post afterschool opportunities that each Afterschool for All partner provides at a centralized and easily accessible site. Change4Change credits Afterschool for All and the Afterschool Alliance as being instrumental in getting their organization off the ground and in providing the framework from which to establish a local afterschool presence.
3. As a leveraging tool to gain support from targeted local organizations.
   Examples:
   • Jill Riemer at the Georgia Partnership for Youth Investment requested Afterschool for All materials for a local business summit. Ms. Riemer used the list of Afterschool for All corporate partners to leverage support from local businesses. She reported that while gaining support for afterschool from the business community is often challenging, businesses are far more likely to be receptive and engaged when they see that other, highly respected, corporations have already pledged their support. Afterschool for All not only offers easy access to that list of respected supporting corporations, but a place for these corporations to be recognized for their leadership on this popular and pragmatic issue.
   • A group of high school students in Buffalo, NY, took on promoting afterschool for all with incredible energy. This resulted from one of the students attending the Afterschool Alliance's Challenge event in May 2005 and her desire to engage her high school in the effort. As a result, the 2,000 students at her high school took part in a postcard campaign targeting local leaders and elected officials, calling on them to join Afterschool for All.
4. As a means of influencing policy makers by demonstrating its national scope and high profile support.
   Example:
   • Julie Lesitsky, a leader of the District 14 Pennsylvania PTA, used Afterschool for All to prepare for an upcoming regional PTA conference. Ms. Lesitsky is interested in capitalizing on its national scope, non-partisan standing and high profile supporters to make the case to the regional School Districts that their lack of afterschool provision is unacceptable. She believes that armed with the list of Afterschool for All supporters, the school district will see that this is not what she described as "the incessant buzz of local PTA complaints in the administration's ears," but rather a larger and more powerful voice; one that is mirrored throughout the nation and is being addressed at the highest levels of government and industry. Ms. Lesitsky believes that armed with the list of Afterschool for All supporters, the District 14 PTA will be able to present an argument for afterschool that demands recognition, consideration and finally action on behalf of their children.
5. As an organizing function and means of generating more extensive dialogues about afterschool.
   Example:
   • Angie Garling and the Alameda County Child Care Planning Council's experience in Alameda County, CA, offers an excellent example of successfully using Afterschool for All as a local organizing function. Angie and her group used the campaign to build a local base of support and engage local decision makers in an extensive dialogue around the issue of inadequate funding for, and provision of, afterschool programs in Alameda County.
6. As a resource for finding individuals and organizations who have taken a first step and might be willing to be further engaged in local afterschool efforts.
   • Examples of this taking place in local communities around the country have been reported to us on an ongoing basis by phone and email. People simply visit the Afterschool for All website, search for partners in their area, and make a phone call: "I noticed that you are listed as a supporter of Afterschool for All. Would you be willing to come down to our afterschool program sometime and talk to the students about what it's like to be a police officer?"

Reasons that prominent individuals and organizations have signed on to Afterschool for All:

1. To gain recognition for supporting a nationally popular and important issue - linking individual and organizational names to a good cause.
   Examples:
   • Six governors have signed on citing the opportunity to register their support for afterschool programs while receiving recognition for their leadership on the issue.
   • The National Basketball Association signed on to Afterschool for All as a means of registering their support for afterschool, then expressed interest in working with the Alliance to broaden their involvement in the cities that their teams represent. This further engagement will highlight both the NBA's interest in reaching out to the communities in which they are active, and their commitment to the growing need for afterschool on a national scale.
   • The US Conference of Mayors (USCM) reports that Afterschool for All's straightforward goals and clear message make it easy to promote to their association of mayors. It provides the USCM the opportunity to connect their constituency to a bi-partisan, national initiative. Hundreds of mayors from around the country are participating as a result.
2. To contribute to the legitimacy and visibility of the issue.
   Example:
   • A number of former governors have pledged their support for this project (including former North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt, former South Carolina Governor Richard W. Riley and former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton), not out of a political rationalization but because they understand that the inclusion of their names on this list will underscore the importance of the campaign.