This section of the Harvard Family Research Project site is a forum for evaluators, practitioners, funders and policymakers to share information and discuss issues related to after school programs.

The Corporation for National Service has compiled tools to help interested adults plan and sustain after-school programs, from starting up and getting funded to evaluating the work.

The association's membership includes more than 7,000 practitioners, policy makers, and administrators representing all public, private, and community-based sectors of after-school and out-of-school time programs, as well as school-age and after-school programs on military bases, both domestic and international.

The majority of 3- to- 17-year-olds have family television rules, one-half of school-age children participate in extracurricular activities and just over half of those under 12 have been in non-family child care, according to a 2001 Census report.

The Finance Project has developed resources on financing and sustaining out-of-school time and community school initiatives. This site can be a valuable ongoing reference for parents who want to be program leaders and system-building advocates.

The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families offers child care training and referral services, youth services such as family counseling and after school care, and health education addressing AIDS/HIV, domestic violence prevention and education.

This report summarizes a workshop of multidisciplinary experts convened by the Board on Children, Youth and Families that covered issues of quantity and quality regarding after-school programs—how to expand the number of after-school programs to meet current needs and how to make sure programs serve the specific developmental needs of kids and young teens.

This overview from the National Service Resource Center outlines how to upgrade the after-school options in your community, and how to go about identifying needs, planning age-appropriate activities and finding resources.
The Beyond the Bell Toolkit from the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory helps you think through the management, programming, evaluation and other issues involved in developing and sustaining an after-school program. The Afterschool Alliance offers an After-School Action Kit for Parents with advice on finding or starting a quality program, identifying program needs and what resources to tap for help.

Anti-hunger federal dollars have often been used to bolster funding for community after school activities by providing the funds for snacks and meals, as the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) has demonstrated in its Building Blocks project. FRAC has also put together a good list of non-nutritional funding sources to help after-school programs seek out core funding.

A 17-year follow-up study by the National Education Goals Panel found that the Head Start programs in Colorado and Florida helped children avoid crime and achieve greater school success as they grew up. Head Start programs using the High/Scope educational curriculum were especially successful.