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”).
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.
Compassion Fatigue: The Professional Liability for Caring Too Much -
This paper by Dr. Rosemary A. Thompson, Ed.D., LPC, NCC, NCSC, Supervisor of
Guidance and Counseling, Chesapeake Public Schools, Chesapeake, VA, was
presented during a February 2003 PERI Symposium entitled "The Human Side of
School Crises".
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.
Insuring Volunteers - This brief from the Nonprofit Risk Management
Center focuses on insuring volunteers against accidents and injuries.
Doing Well, Doing Good: Managing Risk in Corporate Volunteer Programs -
This booklet provides a starting point for establishing or improving a corporate
volunteer program. Through effective risk management, one can ensure that a
company is able to meet its goals for community involvement and service.
Afterschool.gov is a one-stop website connecting
the public, and particularly afterschool providers,
to federal resources that support children and youth
during out-of-school time. A great range of
resources is included on
Afterschool.gov, including issues that face
America's youth, and information about starting and
operating an afterschool program.
Afterschool.gov includes resources from a
variety of federal agencies, including a searchable
database of federal funding sources. While
afterschool resources are spread across the Federal
government (including HHS, ED, Justice, and others),
Afterschool.gov provides a single location for
the public to access this information.
Protecting Your Nonprofit and the Board - This brief from the Nonprofit
Risk Management Center provides advice on risk control; indemnification and
volunteer protection; and risk financing.
Ready in Defense - A Liability, Litigation and Legal Guide for Nonprofits -
This book from the Nonprofit Risk Management Center walks the reader through
important legal terms and concepts, offers practical risk management advice, and
features more than a dozen sample forms and policies you can adapt immediately
for use in your organization.
Accident Preparation and Response Tutorial - This accident preparation
and response tutorial developed by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center and the
Nonprofits' Insurance Alliance of California, with funding from PERI, is a free,
web-based tutorial designed to teach nonprofit organizations how to respond
effectively to accidents.
Playground Liability - This training program is a must for anyone
involved in the design and/or renovation of playgrounds and those involved in
purchasing, installing, and/or maintaining playground equipment.
Workplace Safety Toolkit -This free online resource from the Nonprofit
Risk Management Center is designed to help nonprofits build a safer workplace.
The Workplace Safety Toolkit has multiple layers of information and will be
helpful to organizations of different sizes and levels of experience. There is a
special edition of the toolkit for public entities as well.
Preventing Fraud - This
brief from the Nonprofit Risk Management Center focuses on fraud
and internal controls nonprofits can use to prevent fraud.
Managing Fundraising Risks -This collection of Issues and Ideas Papers
from a June 2000 PERI Symposium looks at aspects of risk management that
nonprofits should practice while engaged in fundraising activities.
Aggression Management: A Paradigm of Prevention - This training program
presents information on the ways to identify the emergence of aggression in the
workplace, foresee the possibility of conflict, and engage and prevent conflict
from occurring.
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.
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.
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.
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 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
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.
Afterschool Alliance is working
to ensure that all children have access to affordable, quality afterschool
programs. Afterschool programs are critical to children and families today, yet
the need for programs is far from being met.
to view over one hundred books that might help! Also
