So you want to start an after school program?

Before your vision of happy children clustered around a craft table or little ones curled up
with a good book becomes a reality, there are several basic questions that must be answered:

What is the need?

Just as companies establish themselves by determining target markets and product demand, after school program planners must answer specific questions to help shape their vision of what is needed (See Category link “Annual Giving”). Many times people have misguided perceptions thinking because they feel a service is needed in the community that the community will step up and support it. There are not enough resources to fund every good idea, so most donors look for a carefully thought-out plan that has a good chance of success and longevity. Some questions to ask:

• Is there an existing after school program that serves the area?
• Was there a previous after school program that failed? If so, why?
• What is the target area? (District-wide? One school? One neighborhood?)
• How many children are involved?
• Where will it be located?

Who is going to pay for it?

Attach a price tag to each item in your after school program picture, and develop a detailed budget. Staff and space are obvious costs, but watch out for the hidden costs that add up! Consumable items like snacks, craft materials, and office supplies are often under-budgeted.

• Parents

People are willing to take on varying levels of personal responsibility for themselves and their children. Some parents may see after school care as a form of child care while others will see the potential for the child to have fun while learning valuable life skills, such as critical thinking and working together. They do not want to lose their child to the blank stare of a video game and hope their child will learn simple tasks, such as making change, or more complex ones, such as talking with adults. Parents will vary in the level of money they can contribute, but all parents should contribute money (within their means) and time.

• Grants

Grants at federal and state level can shift their focus and are not dependable long term sources of support. Partnering in grant applications with other youth-serving organizations may be a possibility, including: parks and recreation, schools, libraries, and law enforcement. 

• Foundations

Local foundations dedicated to serving youth, healthy communities, the arts, and other related topics may be a source of funds.

• Local business and civic groups

Local businesses and civic groups receive repeated requests for support, so it’s important to research the giving history, make contact with community representatives, and “put your best foot forward” in advancing your idea.

Who will help support it?

An established base of supporters is the solid foundation upon which to build an after school program. Just as individual giving is important for board members (see Category Link “Board Guide”), it’s essential that supporters give money and time and actively fund raise for the program. (Remember the joke about the barnyard animals sitting around the breakfast table where the chicken was generous by giving an egg while the pig was fully committed by giving the bacon?)

Supporters can be parents of children who use the after school program, representatives from local businesses, civic groups, and faith-based organizations who understand the benefits that an after school program provides, or other interested community members.

Establishing a long term relationship with supporters and donors is crucial to the success of the project. Regular contact, timely updates, and sincere appreciation go a long way in retaining the supporters who are the lifeblood of the organization (See Category link “Annual Giving”).

Volunteers

Having too many volunteers is a good problem to have but a problem nevertheless. Does having a crowd of volunteers waiting at the entrance to your office around holidays sound like a familiar sight that makes your employees secretly cringe? Being unable to manage volunteers can disrupt operations, reduce overall output of the group, and leave volunteers even with the best intentions feeling unneeded, risking that they would not volunteer again. 

How much would it benefit your organization if you could schedule your volunteers weeks, or even months in advance to match your specific needs? What if you could also schedule them based on their skills and experiences – mixing seasoned volunteers with newbies to reduce the training time? What if you could also maintain an online database of your volunteers and be able to notify them when they are needed. Many employers like SaaS.com offer their employees opportunities to volunteer throughout the year. The challenge is most decide to do it at the end of the year when a lot of their favorite non-profits are already spoken for. The ability to “register” your volunteer’s availability and request their help when needed during the year, would be more meaningful to the non-profit organization as well as the volunteers.

KnowledgeSum provides discounted web-based scheduling solutions to non-profit organizations. Volunteer skills, experiences, availability, and  desired locations can be entered to achieve even greater match between the organization’s needs and available resources.

What kind of program will it have?

A successful and meaningful after school program will be able and willing to train children versus just entertain them! This does not mean that after school programs can’t be fun. Just as adults unwind after a long day of work, children need a place to unwind after the challenges of the school day. Structure, not chaos, is the key.

Search free: After School Funding to view over one hundred books that might help! Also
click here for books that give a step guide on how to set up a program.

The following is a soup-to-nuts collection of after-school resources points parents and providers to funding assistance and useful information to help expand programs, enhance learning and create sustainable high-quality programs. http://www.afterschoolforall.org/resources/index.html

TASC - http://www.tascorp.org/ provides the youth services community with the latest public and private funding information, including ongoing funding sources, as well as time sensitive RFPs. The database was created through a collaboration of the Partnership for After School Education (PASE) and TASC, and funded by Blue Ridge Foundation, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, Guttman Foundation, and New York Community Trust. To receive email updates about the most recent funding opportunities, upcoming technical assistance sessions at PASE and TASC, or to provide feedback on the database, email them at: YFDatabase@tascorp.org.

There are many different opportunities available allowing you to match your community's needs to a specific after school program. Listed below is just a short list of the many resources available on the web.  

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program is a key component of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. It is an opportunity for students and their families to continue to learn new skills and discover new abilities after the school day has ended.

The focus of this program, re-authorized under Title IV, Part B, of the No Child Left Behind Act, is to provide expanded academic enrichment opportunities for children attending low performing schools. Tutorial services and academic enrichment activities are designed to help students meet local and state academic standards in subjects such as reading and math. In addition 21st Century Community Learning Centers Programs provide youth development activities, drug and violence prevention programs, technology education programs, art, music and recreation programs, counseling and character education to enhance the academic component of the program.

About 6,800 rural and inner-city public schools in 1,420 communities--in collaboration with other public and non-profit agencies, organizations, local businesses, post-secondary institutions, scientific/cultural and other community entities--are now participating as 21st Century Community Learning Centers.

 The National Community Education Association host free regional workshops to assist schools with their grant applications for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program and the National Institute on Out-of-School Time provides research and materials to assist applicants for 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants.

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
More than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of Federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE web site. For an overview of what's available here at FREE, please visit the site map.

Each month new teaching and learning resources are added.

• FREE brochure, which you can use to help others learn about the FREE website.
• Gateway to Educational Materials, which offers a database of more than 24,000 education resources across more than 400 web sites. This database is made possible by the Federally supported GEM Consortium, a group of non-federal organizations and Federal agencies that have developed an education-specific metadata profile, controlled vocabularies, and tools for using the profile and vocabularies.

School-Age Ideas and Activities for After School Programs

Also, the U.S. Department of Education (ED), on behalf of the FREE Working Group, was selected in 1997 by the Government Information Technology Services Board to support federal agencies that would partner with teachers to develop online learning materials and learning communities around agency resources. The project, known as the "Consortium for Education," would also document the lessons learned from these partnerships. Here are descriptions of the work by 10 teams supported under the Consortium for Education project.

Grants For After-School:
**Note: At Minges & Associates, LLC, we can provide grant research for as little as $50.00.  To find out more click here! 

The Department of Health and Human Services offers multiple means of assistance for out-of-school time care for children. Agencies like the Administration for Children and Families provide federal programs that promote the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals, and communities.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Services funds a number of Nutrition Programs that provide after-school snacks such as the National School Lunch Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Summer Food Service Program.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention supplies resources, funding opportunities, and publications to assist people working with adolescents and youth.

Recent news on the topic of funding for Education provided by PNN Online
http://pnnonline.org/search.php?query=&topic=1

Need Help with Grant Writing?
SchoolGrants was created in 1999 as a way to share grant information with PK-12 educators.  Grant writing can be intimidating to those who are new at it.  SchoolGrants helps ease those fears by providing online tips to those who need them.  Finding suitable grant opportunities requires a great deal of time and research - SchoolGrants reduces the effort by  listing a variety of opportunities available to public and private nonprofit elementary and secondary schools and districts across the United States. http://www.schoolgrants.org/