Many afterschool programs operated by neighborhood or community-based organizations (CBOs) take place in students' school buildings. Navigating relationships between afterschool programs and their host public schools can be challenging for both parties. At times, tension in such relationships can throw unnecessary roadblocks on the path to…

Susan Ingalls, the Founder and Executive Director of Children & the Classics--a New York City agency that offers technical assistance, arts resources, and direct programming to more than two dozen Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in New York City--describes her experience of sitting in on various meetings where the topic of conversation…

Kirsten Cole, the Director of FUN (Family University) Afterschool Program at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus, shares her experience of working with children in an afterschool program where nightly community meetings address topics the children want to discuss. The topics change, but the underlying themes are often the same: issues of…

Elizabeth C. Knight left the suburbs to major in English at Boston University. Knight currently lives in New York City and works for an afterschool program that deals primarily with inner city youth. Having grown up in an affluent neighborhood, Knight dispels many of the myths centered around growing up in beautiful, safe, wealthy suburbs, saying…

All of us are aware that young people today are facing challenges far greater than the ones we ourselves faced growing up. Now more than ever, the music, television, and film industries are busy parenting their young consumers at an alarming rate and with a fierce intensity. The products of these industries are, for the most part, stripped of any…

Paints a portrait of a 7-year-old girl, her mother, and their experience at a community-based, after-school youth program in a public housing development, demonstrating how stories taken from the field can illustrate the power of peer education and motivate community based organization staff toward more inspired educational after school…

A program that combines sports and literature can improve students' reading, writing, and comprehension skills, promoting links between children's personal development and self-esteem and forging links between sports, literature, and daily life. Describes one such program, Sports PLUS After School, noting: program goals, components, and structure;…

Every youth organization must create an agency culture that promotes positive values and relationships. Using social work theory, the article proposes a Model for Common Humanity, offering nine principles that can guide the fostering of an agency milieu: needs dialogue; purpose, values, and expectations; adaptation; mutuality; building consensus;…

Using research conducted at an urban youth theater program, this paper demonstrates how young artists play organizational roles and act with a sense of agency comparable to that of the corporate world. The paper helps those working in school- and community-based after-school programs see new partnerships and programs as both possible and…

At one urban family service agency, staff members have drawn a vital connection between community and literacy. Explains how this literacy program evolved from a basic tutoring opportunity into a curriculum using themes and information gleaned from the young participants' immediate community surroundings. Describes the program's history,…

An effective youth development-based staff training program includes such key elements as: building caring and trusting relationships; engaging participants; offering opportunities for contribution; setting high expectations; and providing continuity. Presents a framework for thinking about how to strengthen training, offering practical…