A new evaluation of School’s Out New York City (SONYC), supported by the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), finds that the initiative offers New York City middle schoolers a pathway to success through high-quality afterschool programming. Their program connects youth to supportive adults who provide engaging and educational activities to help achieve SONYC’s five main goals: fostering holistic youth success, encouraging youth to explore their interests, building skills to support academic achievement, cultivating youth leadership and community engagement, and engaging invested individuals in supporting these goals. Download the evaluation.

A new report by Policy Studies Associates, Inc., ExpandED Schools National Demonstration: Lessons For Scale And Sustainability, highlights some ways in which schools and community organizations come together to provide children with critical enrichment activities that enhance knowledge and expand horizons beyond core academics during the school day. The report investigates schools’ use of the ExpandED Schools model, which seeks to use partnerships between public schools, community organizations and intermediary organizations to increase enrichment opportunities for children. Over four years, researchers studied the use of this model in 10 schools in three cities — New York City, Baltimore and New Orleans. In this report, they identify the parts of the model that were easiest for the schools to implement, parts that proved more challenging, and strategies schools used to overcome hurdles along the way. Download the report.