After-school programs provide wide-ranging benefits to children, their families, and the whole community. This report focuses on the benefits children receive: increased safety, reduced risk-taking, and improved learning. Quality afterschool programs keep kids out of trouble, prevent crime, juvenile delinquency, school vandalism, and violent victimization. Participants spend more time in academic activities and enrichment lessons than do their unsupervised peers. Common program elements include: goal setting and strong management; quality staffing; low staff/student ratios; attention to safety, health, and nutrition issues; effective partnerships with community-based organizations, juvenile justice agencies, law enforcement, and youth groups; strong family involvement; coordination of learning with classroom instruction; linkages between school and afterschool personnel; and evaluation of program effectiveness. Descriptions of 26 exemplary communities meeting the need for afterschool communities range from Bridgeport, Connecticut's ASPIRA Lighthouse Program to San Antonio's YouthARTS Program. The report includes 118 endnotes; a bibliography of 67 references; a list of resources (organizations, websites, listservs, and videos); a list of federal government resources and programs; and a list of U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice publications. (MLH)