Six Cities To Participate In National League Of Cities Afterschool Initiative
The National League of Cities (NLC) has selected six cities as sites for a new technical assistance effort that will help them design afterschool programs to support the academic achievement of students in their communities.
The 18-month project, Integrating Afterschool and Education Reform, is sponsored by the NLC Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute) and made possible by the financial support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
The six cities selected for the project are: Brockton, Mass.; Cleveland, Ohio; Little Rock, Ark.; Norfolk, Va.; Pasadena, Calif.; and Waco, Texas. Each of the six selected cities will select a local project team consisting of city officials, school district representatives, and other community leaders to plan and implement citywide efforts.
The NLC program will provide customized technical assistance to these six municipalities, cultivate regional networks that will increase information sharing among cities, and build knowledge among municipal officials and their senior staff about promising approaches through peer-to-peer conversations, meetings, and publications.
YEF Institute staff will conduct at least one site visit to each city and work with each team in identifying strategies that connect in-school and afterschool learning opportunities and implement these strategies within their community.
The cities will also have the opportunity to network with each other and learn from their respective experiences through at least one cross-site meeting that will bring together team members from each city.
To reinforce the cross-site connections, NLC will host conference calls throughout the course of the project in which all six cities can exchange information.
“Many municipal leaders do not have an opportunity to share their experiences, compare their city’s strategy against promising practices, or learn from other local elected officials,” said Cliff Johnson, YEF Institute Executive Director. “In the Integrating Afterschool and Education Reform initiative, the YEF Institute will create avenues for municipal officials and their senior staff to have conversations around afterschool programs, host networking opportunities to discuss programs, and see effective city afterschool systems in operation.”