Our Vision

Afterschool programs keep kids safe, inspire them to learn, and give working parents peace of mind. They help children learn, grow, and reach their full potential, offering new learning opportunities that help students do better in school and in life. Children in afterschool programs attend school more often, get better grades, and are more likely to graduate. They are less likely to use drugs or alcohol.

But too many children are missing out. For every child in a program, three are waiting to get in. Nationwide, 7.7 million children are on their own between 3 and 6 p.m. The Afterschool Alliance is working to ensure that all children, regardless of income or geographic area, have access to quality afterschool programs. Our efforts are aimed at securing resources to expand programming and help programs be the best they can be. We focus foremost on underserved and disadvantaged children and communities.

Mission

The Alliance works to ensure that all youth have access to affordable, quality afterschool programs by engaging public will to increase public and private investment in afterschool program initiatives at the national, state, and local levels.

Values

The Afterschool Alliance works to ensure all children and youth have access to quality afterschool and summer learning programs, wherever they live and learn. The following values are at the core of our work:

  • Encouraging Investments that Support Excellence. We know that quality afterschool and summer learning programs are essential for students to achieve their full potential in school, work, and life. Public and private investments make it possible for out-of-school time programs to keep students safe, inspire them to learn, and give their families peace of mind. Investments must be sufficient to ensure afterschool and youth development work is led by a professional labor force compensated with fair wages, reasonable benefits, and professional pathways. 
     
  • Inspiring Holistic Youth Development. Our goal is to inspire thoughtful, responsive, protective, comprehensive programming. We work to equip the field with the highest quality, most relevant resources so programs can respect and respond to the needs of each individual and community. 
     
  • Supporting Access for All. We are committed to ensuring that every afterschool and summer learning program can support the health, safety, academic success, and well-being of each child it serves. We especially work to support under-resourced programs and those serving students from vulnerable populations. 
     
  • Empowering Local Communities. We recognize that each community is unique, with resilience, strengths, and distinct resource needs. We provide students, families, community programs, stakeholders, and policy influencers with tools and information to help them advocate for the resources their community needs, and effectively put those resources to use.

Goals

  • Be an effective voice for afterschool in efforts to expand quality affordable afterschool and summer programs
  • Serve as an information source on afterschool programs and resources
  • Encourage the development of local, state, and national afterschool constituencies and systems
  • Communicate the impact of afterschool programs on children, families, and communities

History

The Afterschool Alliance was established in 2000 by a small group of corporate and foundation philanthropies—including the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, JCPenney Company, Inc., the Open Society Institute/The After-School Corporation, the Entertainment Industry Foundation and the Creative Artists Agency Foundation—to expand afterschool and summer learning opportunities nationwide. Since our inception, public investment in afterschool programs has doubled.

Today, the Alliance works with a broad range of organizations and supporters, including policymakers, government agencies, youth, parent and education groups, business and philanthropic leaders, afterschool coalitions and providers at the national, state, and local levels, and leaders representing health and wellness, college and career readiness, social and emotional learning, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning, and more—each with a stake in afterschool.