Out-of-School Time Learning Grants & Programs 

 
Eighty percent of children’s waking hours are spent outside of school. But for too many young people, the end of the school day signals long hours of boredom and risk rather than the chance to participate in enriching learning activities such as sports, arts or homework help. Building on its long legacy of support for out-of-school time (OST) learning opportunities, The Wallace Foundation is seeking to change that picture. Our current goal is to develop and test ways in which cities can plan and implement strategies that increase overall participation in high-quality OST programs so that children, especially those with the highest needs, attend often enough to gain learning and developmental benefits.

Experience to date suggests that a “coordinated approach” is a promising route for increasing the quality of and access to OST opportunities citywide. A Place to Grow and Learn describes this hypothesis in detail and suggests that there are six “action elements” for achieving such a coordinated approach for improving OST: 

• Committed leadership –  including top political, school, community and OST leaders, to secure funding and other resources and shape policies;
•  A public or private coordinating entity – to manage the development of plans, link disparate OST players, build citywide attention and support for OST, and ensure that plans and performance stay on track;
• Multi-year planning – to set goals and priorities, develop ways to hold key players accountable for results and identify necessary resources;
• Reliable information – to document the needs and wishes of parents and children, track participation and identify underserved neighborhoods and families;
• Expanding participation – to reach more children and ensure that they attend often enough to benefit; and
• A commitment to quality – because quality programs are likeliest to benefit children and therefore scarce OST funding should be directed to delivering high-quality programming.   

Since 2003, Wallace has been supporting such efforts in five cities: Boston, Chicago, New York, Providence and Washington, D.C. In 2009, Wallace provided further funding to Providence to support new work aimed at bringing together out-of-school time planners and school officials to shape programming for expanded learning time, and to Chicago to build on that city’s OST management information system so that it provides a detailed picture – unprecedented for big cities – of how children’s needs are being met outside of school. For more details, click here.

Wallace is also supporting a new effort in Chicago aimed at strengthening the financial management of nonprofit organizations that run OST programs. This initiative is based on the belief that if OST providers adopt more effective financial management practices and if funders improve policies and practices, OST organizations will be better able to deliver high-quality services to children.

To raise awareness of and support for the importance of high quality OST, Wallace has been working with the National League of Cities, to provide mayors and other municipal leaders with information about how to improve out-of-school learning opportunities. The foundation is also supporting the Washington D.C.-based Afterschool Alliance to promote OST at the state level and nationwide.