The After School Project

Making the Most of the Day, The Final Report of the After School Project
Tony Proscio (July 2006) Available as a PDF only.
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The final report to the field sums up the 5-year pilot. Based on interviews with the leadership of the Project's three sites—Boston After School & Beyond, Chicago's After School Matters, and Team-Up for Youth in the San Francisco Bay Area—the report reflects on the process and progress of their work in their respective cities, the independent conclusion of the Project's evaluation consultant, and on the out-of--school-time field generally, including the opportunities and risks it faces in the remainder of this decade and beyond.

Healthy Choices Afterschool, Investigation of the Alignment of Physical Activity and Nutrition Programs/Curricula and the National Afterschool Association Program Standards
Prepared by the National Institute on Out-of School-Time (NIOST), with funding from the After School Project. (June 2006) Available as a PDF only.
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NIOST reviewed and analyzed 20 programs for their alignment with the National Afterschool Association Program Standards. These standards are designed to describe the best practices in out-of-school time programs for children and youth between the ages of 5 — 14 and are used by the Association and out-of-school-time programs throughout the country as a basis for a self-study process and program accreditation

Building Quality After-School Programs through Professional Development Intermediaries: A Case Study of The After-School Institute
Prepared by The After-School Institute, with funding from the After School Project (June 2006) Available as a PDF only.
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A case study of The After-School Institute summarizing lessons learned by TASI on: recruiting, establishing relationships and providing networking opportunities for after school programs; developing a system for training focusing on increasing quality, quantity and utilization of after school programs; incorporating youth development principles that increases youth leadership and youth engagement; and, assessing impact.

Healthy Children Healthy Futures Initiative
Prepared by the After-School Institute, with Funding from the After School Project (June 2006) Available as a PDF only.
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A report on TASI's collaborative effort with the Strang Cancer Prevention Center to implement the Healthy Children Healthy Futures (HCHF) nutrition and physical fitness curriculum in twelve Baltimore afterschool programs as a means of preventing childhood obesity. The report includes an executive summary of a process evaluation conducted by the Out-of-School Time Resource Center at the University of Pennsylvania to determine what factors facilitated successful implementation of the HCHF curriculum in the twelve programs and the role played by an intermediary.

Between Home and School: A Report to the Field
Tony Proscio (July 2005) Full report available as a PDF only.
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Over the last three years the three RWJF-supported intermediary organizations—Boston After School & Beyond, After School Matters in Chicago, and Team-Up for Youth in the San Francisco Bay area— have worked to promote coherent delivery systems of high-quality out-of-school time services for their cities' poorest children. Within their own city's unique political landscape, each has experimented with a set of complementary strategies for achieving that end.

Between Home and School reviews the progress of the sites since the Project's last report to the field in 2002 and discusses major issues confronting the afterschool field as a whole, including governance, sustainability, establishing appropriate expectations for programs, and the need for ways to conduct and use research that better serves the field. The report is intended to shed light on what it takes for cities to organize themselves to provide a diverse range of engaging activities to their poorest children and in the process to dramatically increase children's physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development.

To download or request a hard copy of the entire report (2.2 Mb PDF), use the "Request Report" link above.

Positive Youth Development And Nutrition In Sports
Study Report by: Cornell University Cooperative Extension New York City, with funding from the After School Project, (June 2005) Available as a PDF only.
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Over 2004-2005, Cornell University's Cooperative Extension-NYC assessed the status of training in the areas of positive youth development, nutrition, and health for volunteer or paid coaches and agency leaders implementing youth sports programs in a variety of settings. The report also documents the content of a select group of large scale, established coach training programs and the gaps that exist in current training initiatives.

Click here the full report (61 pages, 1.5Mb).
Click here for the Executive Summary (12 pages, 0.5Mb)

After-School Grows Up, How Four Large American Cities Approach Scale and Quality in After-School Programs
Tony Proscio and Basil J. Whiting (October 2004) Available as a PDF only.
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In the last decade, initiatives to create, expand and improve afterschool services for young people have become more typical in large cities across the United States. However, the field is still nascent and tremendous challenges remain. Co-authors Proscio and Whiting provide in-depth studies of four cities—Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Diego—who have, over time, developed highly effective afterschool support organizations. While each city's story is set in a unique political and social landscape, there are common elements in their profiles that the Project believes are fundamental to their successes to-date.

The full report may be downloaded in its entirety, or in individual sections.

No Idle Hours: Making After School Time Productive and Fun for Chicago's Teenagers
Tony Proscio (July 2003) Available as a PDF only.
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Proscio describes the evolution of After School Matters, one of the most important afterschool organizations the Project has seen in the country. Based on an unprecedented partnership among three city agencies — Chicago's school, park and library departments — After School Matters provides paid apprenticeships in the arts, technology, sports, and communications to high school students as well as recreational activities in a less structured drop-in "club."

Precious Time: A Report to the Field
Tony Proscio (October 2002) Available as a PDF only.
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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is seeking to learn whether cities can establish lasting capacity to increase the number of young people involved with adults in high-quality activities after school. Proscio gives an in-depth look at the impetus for the Foundation's After School Project.

This report to the field describes the goals of the Project's reconnaissance to select cities that could yield answers to this question and discusses the work of the first two sites to become a part of the Project: Chicago's After School Matters and the San Francisco Bay Area's Team-Up for Youth.

"Before It's Too Late"
Tony Proscio (December 2001) Available as a PDF only.
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Proscio documents the efforts of Michigan's Wayne County Department of Community Justice in the late 1990s to launch a sweeping overhaul of its delinquency enforcement and prevention system. The program was an innovative example of a public agency diverting juvenile justice funds away from high-security detention facilities and other "lock up" strategies for young people to community-based treatment, afterschool programs and other preventive approaches. The report is a remarkable story of ambitious management reform and smart investment in which the profits were measured in safer streets and healthier lives for young people.