From its earliest days, the Mott Foundation has cared about the health, well-being and education of children — and the vital relationship between individuals and their communities. With these values, in 1935, Charles Stewart Mott joined local educator Frank Manley in launching the Flint-based “lighted schoolhouse” model, which would become a beacon for community education around the world and a cornerstone of the modern afterschool field.

For more than 90 years, Mott and its grantees have helped grow this field, from the development of community schools to partnering with the U.S. Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, establishing statewide afterschool networks in all 50 states and launching key national organizations that inform educational policy and practice.

From 1998 through 2025, the Mott Foundation granted more than $430 million to support afterschool in the U.S., particularly for children from low-income families and in underserved areas.

Today, afterschool programs benefit millions of young people. Woven into the fabric of American communities, they are vital to children’s development. They nourish curiosity, creativity, self-confidence and growth — and are helping to shape the future of learning.

Connecting schools and communities

Founded in the shadow of the Great Depression, the lighted schoolhouse model in Flint became a crucial resource for working families. This model envisioned local schools as vibrant hubs — for recreation, learning and civic engagement — long after the last school bell rang.

The forerunners of today’s afterschool and summer programs, these centers gave parents peace of mind, knowing that their children had safe places to play and learn with the support of caring adults. Beyond enriching activities that supplemented school-day lessons, they strengthened neighborhoods and helped keep young people engaged, connected and learning.

Drawing on lessons learned in Flint, Mott launched its Advancing Afterschool program area to bring lighted schoolhouses to young people nationwide.

Turning the lights on nationwide for children

From its background in community education, Mott recognized the potential of afterschool programs to transform learning opportunities — and sought to expand the availability of programs to kids across the U.S. But until the 1990s, federal support for afterschool was limited.

A pivotal moment came in 1997, when then Foundation President and CEO William White attended a White House conference on early education and met with then U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and his chief education advisor, Terry Peterson. Riley and Peterson approached the Foundation to help create high-quality afterschool programs through what is now the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. The Foundation provided an initial $2 million grant and committed to provide up to $55 million more. The historic public-private partnership aimed to bring high-quality, affordable afterschool programs to every child who needed them.

Strategic communications would be an integral part of this effort. To raise awareness about afterschool, the Foundation joined other corporate and philanthropic leaders to develop the “Helping Kids Find the Hero Within” campaign and Lights On Afterschool, a national day of awareness inspired by the enduring symbol of the lighted schoolhouse. Mott helped launch the Afterschool Alliance to lead these efforts. Beginning with 1,200 local events, Lights On Afterschool grew to become a hallmark of the afterschool field. Today’s celebrations attract 1 million Americans to over 8,000 events nationwide, calling on our nation’s leaders to “keep the lights on for kids” everywhere.

Demand for afterschool programs soared. Over just four years (from 2001 to 2004) the nascent bipartisan 21st CCLC program saw a flood of applications that far outpaced program resources. Despite the success of these programs, some in government advocated funding cuts. The Afterschool Alliance and a burgeoning afterschool movement kept public and policymaker attention on protecting these programs for generations of young people.

By 2019, an estimated 1.7 million young people each year participated in 21st CCLC-funded programs at 11,000 sites across the country.

For more than 25 years, Community Learning Centers have accelerated students’ academic growth, engagement and success. Now facing an uncertain future, families, educators and the afterschool movement are stalwart voices for ensuring that future generations of children have access to these essential programs.

Building a field to advance afterschool

As momentum for afterschool grew, Mott helped the field build an infrastructure that could connect out-of-school time leaders and programs, promote effective practices and inform afterschool policies.

Begun in 2002 with networks in nine states — and established in all 50 states by 2015 — the Mott-funded statewide afterschool networks brought together government agencies, nonprofit organizations and individual champions for children to partner in improving educational opportunities for young people. Alongside the networks, Mott funded a group of national technical assistance experts, known as the Afterschool Technical Assistance Collaborative, to help networks with data collection, communications and convenings.

The 50 State Afterschool Network, with support from ATAC, came to serve as a backbone of infrastructure for afterschool education. The “network effect” led to the widespread development of quality programs that prioritize school-community partnerships and project-based learning opportunities in career-related topics such as science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.

Over the next decade, afterschool opportunities grew substantially.

In 2014, the Afterschool Alliance published America After 3PM, the largest longitudinal survey undertaken on afterschool programs. It found that access to afterschool programs had reached an all-time high: 10.2 million children and youth participated in a program — and parents across the political spectrum overwhelmingly supported public funding for afterschool.

But demand continued to far outpace supply.

Mott grantees doubled down on initiatives that would increase access to high-quality afterschool and summer learning programs. Working with the National Conference of State Legislatures, networks improved data collection for policymakers. With the National League of Cities, they helped elevate the voices of mayors. With the Afterschool Alliance, they led forward-looking campaigns, such as “This is Afterschool,” which shared young people’s stories about how afterschool helped them prepare for college, career and the future.

From 2000 to 2024, state-level funding for afterschool and summer learning programs increased 20-fold. Today, 29 states collectively provide nearly $6 billion in funding for local afterschool programs. This includes an unprecedented $50 million investment in out-of-school time programs in our home state, where the Michigan Afterschool Partnership led the public awareness campaign, All in Michigan: Afterschool for Every Child.

Standing with the nation’s children

Having a strong policy and communications infrastructure in place was crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the pandemic raged and schools closed, afterschool and summer programs provided mainstay support for children and families. Mott grantees drove efforts to deliver meals to families, train educators on remote instruction and inform policymakers about needed regulatory changes to keep 21st CCLC doors open.

When the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 invested $30 billion in recovery funding for afterschool and summer learning programs, our grantees worked tirelessly to ensure that these resources translated into real opportunities for students in every state.

The Foundation intensified support to grantees leading student recovery efforts, contributing $1 million in mini-grants, $500,000 to the Afterschool Opportunity Fund and $300,000 to the Association of American School Administrators. Mott also supported a coordinated effort to help schools and other providers take part in the federal Engage Every Student Initiative and supported the public-private National Partnership for Student Success to significantly expand access to high-quality tutoring and mentoring.

In the wake of the pandemic, an estimated 17 million students have a learning delay of more than a year and half, and there is a heightened need for mental health supports. The 50 State Afterschool Network is working to help students recover lost learning, engage with mentors and explore new activities that inspire curiosity, connection and confidence.

Fueling afterschool quality and innovation

Creating high-quality programs has always been a central goal for the afterschool field and movement. To support these efforts, Mott has funded research on the impact of afterschool programs and effective models — and helped out-of-school time educators leverage technology to create engaging learning experiences for all students.

Building on decades of research, Deborah Lowe Vandell recently published results from a 26-year longitudinal study of the impact of afterschool that was supported, in part, by Mott. Vandell’s research found that participation in afterschool has positive impacts for youth not only in elementary and secondary school, but well into young adulthood. Young adults who participated in afterschool are more likely to graduate post-secondary training or college, are more engaged in their communities, and have higher paying jobs. Research by the American Institutes for Research, conducted with support from Mott, finds that high-quality afterschool experiences are correlated with positive social and emotional development and educational outcomes, including literacy.

To build program capacity, the Foundation incubated and launched Mizzen by Mott — the first online application developed by and for out-of-school time educators. The idea for Mizzen was born in 2017, when Mott president and CEO Ridgway White asked, “How can we use technology to help ensure that all kids — no matter where they live and learn — can always have access to outstanding learning opportunities in out-of-school time?”

As intended from the start, Mizzen spun off in October 2023 to become an independent nonprofit, Mizzen Education, Inc. Today, its robust and intuitive platform brings free, turnkey lessons from Nickelodeon, The Nature Conservancy, Jazz at Lincoln Center, PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs and other content partners to educators and youth around the country.

State networks, with support from Mott, have led efforts to raise quality standards and served as laboratories for learning innovation. Over 40 states have implemented statewide quality standards governing afterschool. New state-funded afterschool programs now include evaluation measures that better track program impact, and significant resources exist to support afterschool credentials for educators. State networks helped launch and introduce Mizzen to the afterschool field. The networks have collaborated with Million Girls Moonshot, an initiative of the STEM Next Opportunity Fund, to make STEM more engaging and available to millions of young people, and they also helped to develop the first-ever statewide afterschool program dedicated to advancing holistic mental health supports for kids.

Preparing youth for their futures

As a field, afterschool is working to prepare young people for emerging jobs and opportunities.

Through service learning, entrepreneurial education, STEM programs, and career and technical education, afterschool programs — now in rural, urban and suburban communities around the country — are helping students pursue their interests and build skills and leadership abilities that put them on a path to success.

The best out-of-school time programs reflect the voices, insights and priorities of young people. Mott grantees are working to ensure that students are at the forefront of program design and national discussions that shape the future of learning.