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Statewide afterschool networks gain momentum
By SHEILA BEACHUM BILBY
Imagine a roller coaster chugging up that first steep hill on its track, slowing a bit as it nears the top before finally cresting and plunging downward with gravity and speed taking over for a thrilling ride.
This is how Michelle Doucette Cunningham feels about being executive director of the Connecticut After School Network, which since 2004 has worked to bring together policymakers, educators, child-care providers, parents and other advocates interested in seeing high-quality afterschool programs implemented statewide.
“I kind of feel like I got on the roller coaster when it’s on top, and now I’m along for the ride,” Cunningham said.
She marvels at how quickly interest is building in her state and elsewhere for linking the school day with quality afterschool learning. Nationally, statewide afterschool networks are wielding increasing clout in shaping how -- and whether -- learning is delivered to millions of children after the bell rings at the end of the traditional school day.
Although each of the 38 networks has unique characteristics, all are working toward the same vision of furthering afterschool policies and practices, and are receiving recognition for their efforts in helping form policy, build effective partnerships and pursue funding that will maintain quality learning after school, whether in classrooms, community centers or faith-based settings.
In the past three years, the number of statewide afterschool networks has more than doubled from the first 18 -- buoyed in part by more than $12 million in support from the Mott Foundation since 2002.
From California, with its enviable reservoir of almost $550 million to invest in afterschool, to Connecticut, with a more modest earmark of $5.3 million for afterschool, each statewide network is winning hearts and minds -- and, in many cases, new state dollars -- in the quest for quality afterschool programs.
In Ohio, for example, the afterschool network figured out how to tap into unused federal funds, resulting in $9 million in new spending last year on afterschool programs for needy youth. Meanwhile, the state afterschool network in Washington is focusing on convening those critical to helping advance the afterschool cause, as it helped win $3 million in new funding for afterschool programs.
No matter the approach, the goal is the same: The networks want to give all children an opportunity to learn, play and grow in safe, first-rate afterschool programs, especially the 14 million children nationwide who are home alone after school. Studies show these children to be more likely to engage in risky behaviors or be victims of crime.
The networks want afterschool programs to link up with school curriculums and help support the academic performance of students, as well as offer new and enriching experiences for children.
The individual statewide afterschool networks make up the National Network of Statewide Afterschool Networks. The national network, through meetings, audio-conference calls and Web sites, provides an avenue for the state networks to collaborate as well as share strategies and challenges for furthering policies that support quality and sustainable afterschool programs.
The Mott-funded Afterschool Technical Assistance Collaborative (ATAC), a group of national organizations well versed in policymaking and networking, provides technical assistance to help the state networks marshal the partnerships, funding and support needed to increase and sustain afterschool policies.
ATAC members are the Afterschool Alliance, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Finance Project, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Governors Association, the National League of Cities Inc. and the College of Charleston with support from Learning Points Associates and Collaborative Communications Group.
“ATAC’s bread and butter is they’re all experts in how to think about those policies, how to think about funding streams, how to think about networks,” said Terry Peterson, a senior fellow at the College of Charleston (South Carolina) and director of the Afterschool and Community Learning Network.
ATAC helps the statewide networks connect with policymakers, from governor’s offices and lawmakers to chief state school officers, mayors and beyond. The networks have discovered that ATAC can bring national credibility and leverage to smooth the way for a more welcome reception from their states’ policymakers.
Over the next two years, the effectiveness of the overall statewide afterschool initiative will be evaluated under a $300,000 Mott grant to Harvard University’s Family Research Project. The project will develop a self-assessment framework that each state network can use to measure its progress.
The afterschool movement has gained traction in recent years, following on the heels of the successful implementation of the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative, which provides afterschool to high-need students. The movement has grown with the building of the statewide afterschool networks, and the networks are now emerging as players in the policymaking arena.
Peterson cites statewide networks in Connecticut, Ohio and Washington, among several others, as effective agents of change for afterschool.
The state networks, for their part, acknowledge the significant guidance they receive from the national network and ATAC.
“They’ve been amazing,” Liz Nusken, director of the Ohio Afterschool Network, said of the national network. “They’re very helpful in helping us think through strategies in partnership and funding, and communication and professional development.”
Ohio’s network, established in 2004, convinced the state’s governor to sign an executive order in May 2006 to make $28.5 million in unused federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) funds available for afterschool programs targeting low-income children. Thirty percent of TANF funds, which must be used for families in need, can be used for child-care services.
Around the same time, the network published an analysis showing that at least 240,000 children in Ohio were eligible for, but not receiving, afterschool services.
Because of inadequate time for planning and communication about how school districts were to apply for the TANF funds, Nusken said, only $14.6 million of the total was actually spent.
Despite the confusion -- and with lots of hard work on the network’s part -- the Ohio Legislature this year approved spending $10 million in each year of the state’s next two-year budgets on summer and afterschool programs for TANF-eligible youth.
The Ohio network will continue its work on TANF funding under Mott’s latest round of grants to help support innovation by a number of afterschool networks, including those in California, Connecticut and Washington. Such grants encourage the networks to pursue promising initiatives. Lessons learned are then shared with other state networks through the national network.
The Washington Afterschool Network (WAN) is more than happy to share the lessons it learned through an innovative model for convening various stakeholders with keen interests in afterschool programs.
The first group targeted was school principals. Five different communities were given funds to educate principals about the importance of afterschool programs. It was so successful, the network is going to call on principals again in the coming year. Next up: Law enforcement, business and civic leaders.
“School building principals can make or break an afterschool program,” said Janet Frieling, director of WAN.
She said WAN, after four tries, this year finally was able to help secure $3 million in state funding to support professional development for afterschool staff and to create public awareness of the importance of afterschool learning.
California may be ahead of the curve among most states in educating the public about the importance of afterschool learning and in tackling issues of quality.
Five years ago, its state Legislature approved Proposition 49, which increased annual support for afterschool programs from $121 million to $550 million. In one stroke, the state more than doubled its afterschool sites from 2,000 to 4,000, according to Andee Press-Dawson, executive director of the California Afterschool Network.
Under the Mott innovation grant, the California Afterschool Network will focus on ensuring that all afterschool programs are of high quality.
“We just want to make sure that young people in California are not just spending time in a program but are developing skills, and that they’re better people as a result of being in these programs,” Press-Dawson said.
In Connecticut, Cunningham will use the innovation grant for technology-based tools that will help the network be more efficient and effective. For example, she said, the network could do a Webinar for funders about how to recognize quality in afterschool programs or what to look for in evaluating grant applications.
“The innovation grant is allowing us to go deeper into the work that we’re already doing to look at some new ways of connecting with the people that we’re already working with,” Cunningham said.
“It really is an exciting time.”