Modestly funded and often stretched to their limits, the organizations that provide out-of-school time (OST) programming face mounting demands to deliver higher quality services to more children. The Wallace Foundation recently asked several experts in the OST field to identify what they think are the key organizational, administrative and management obstacles impeding OST providers from lifting the quality of their programs and discuss how those might be overcome.

In Strengthening Out-of-School Time Nonprofits: The Role of Foundations in Building Organizational Capacity, Heather B. Weiss and Priscilla D. Little of the Harvard Family Research Project suggest seven possible approaches to strengthening OST organizations, including methods to ensure that OST providers become stronger partners with other groups and more adept advocates for their field. Click here to download.

A New Day for Youth: Creating Sustainable Quality in Out of School Time, by Harvard researcher Gil G. Noam, asserts that the ability of OST providers to offer high-quality OST programming rests on strong leadership, staffing and their activities for children. Noam therefore advocates more leadership and management training for OST executive leaders; training for OST staffers in establishing strong relationships with young people; and assistance in establishing clear learning goals for students. Click here to download.

In A View from the Field: Helping Community Organizations Meet Capacity Challenges, Lucy N. Friedman, president of The After-School Corporation, a New York City-based nonprofit nationally recognized for promoting high quality OST programming, writes that investments in four areas in particular could strengthen OST providers: training for staffers and executives; educating principals and other education leaders about the role of OST; improving the content of programming; and strengthening the financial management and governance of OST provider groups. Click here to download.