Resources for Afterschool Professionals

A comprehensive tool for afterschool practitioners to use in assessing and articulating their programs' impact on youth. This inventory represents a collective effort to identify a full realm of outcomes for children and youth and present these outcomes in clear and accessible language. Programs can use this inventory to communicate their impact to variety of stakeholders as well as to more readily identify and measure this positive impact.

To ensure that the growing number of afterschool programs successfully contribute to the learning and healthy development of young people, we need to agree on what we can appropriately expect from these programs and on how best to measure their effectiveness.

A policy report examining the federal government's role in afterschool programs, including an overview of current research and recommendations to expand access and improve quality.

Study shows that, “…Parents of children not currently in afterschool programs believe their children would benefit most from afterschool programs in the following ways: fun/personal enjoyment, staying safe and out of trouble, providing academic enrichment, improving social skills and improving physical health and fitness.”

This groundbreaking professional-development book helps directors and staff create healthier learning environments for children and youth in after-school programs. The authors outline the support and skills staff need to increase selfawareness, sustain healthy relationships, and improve group dynamics.

Out-of-school time programs can have positive effects on young people’s development; however, programs do not always produce such effects. The quality of instructional practices is logically a key factor but quality improvement interventions must be understood within a multi-level framework including policy, organization, and point of service if they are to be both effective and scalable.

With Prop 49 starting in California, afterschool services are growing quickly throughout Los Angeles and the state. Now is the time for afterschool and school staff to improve their work together in promoting children’s success. This success is not specific to academics, and includes positive social, emotional and academic development.

The guide addresses a common problem throughout the youth field: We know that out-of-school time (OST) programs can help youth develop skills and attributes they need to be ready for college, work and life – skills and attributes like communications, relationships and collaboration, critical thinking and decision making, and initiative and self-direction. But few OST programs have the tools to effectively measure those outcomes. Finding the right one can be daunting.

From Soft Skills to Hard Data reviews ten youth outcome measurement tools that are appropriate for use in after-school and other settings. For each tool, it provides sample items and crucial information about usability, cost, and evidence of reliability and validity. A companion to the Forum’s Measuring Youth Program Quality, the guide can help providers select conceptually grounded, psychometrically sound measures appropriate for programs that serve upper-elementary- through high school-aged youth.

A review of the unique opportunities offered by afterschool programs that includes but goes well beyond providing academic supports.

Summary of findings from two recent reports (Durlak and Weissberg and Yohalem and Wilson-Ahlstrom) relevant to policy and practice questions. One shows after-school programs attempting to enhance youth’s personal and social skills can improve outcomes important to both school and non-school audiences; The second describes instruments that measure the quality of youth program practices at the point of service.