San Francisco Afterschool for All 2010-2011 Highlights

The San Francisco Afterschool for All (AFA) effort has released its 2010-2011 Year End Report, which describes accomplishments for the year. Highlights from the report include:

• In 2006, only 69% of children and youth in Kindergarten to Grade 8 who wanted to participate in afterschool programming had access. By 2010-11, slots were available for 91% of youth (37,263 individuals) who wanted to participate in an afterschool program.
• The City’s Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF) implemented a new funding strategy that provides city matching funds to the state and federal seed grants that SFUSD awards to community-based organizations to operate ExCEL school-based afterschool programs. DCYF awarded 55 grants which together total about $3.8 million each year for the next three years.
• One of the key challenges in the afterschool field is defining and measuring program quality to ensure that youth reap the benefits that research has shown high-quality programs can foster among participants. The Afterschool for All effort developed an “AFA Summer Quality Self-Assessment (QSA) Tool” That they hope summer programs across the city will use to improve their program quality. The tool offers three levels of indicators to help programs know where they are in the continuum of quality practices.
• In Spring 2011, DCYF and SFUSD led a pilot effort to allow out-of-school time providers working with middle and high school students to use a new online communication system (called School Loop) to share student academic data with providers to enhance their coordination and support of school success. For the first time, non-district staff were allowed to use the system to access student-level information, such as grades, homework, and school attendance. This type of information helps afterschool providers tailor their program offerings to meet individual youths’ needs, offer appropriate interventions, and enhance their ability to assist with homework.
• SFUSD partnered with the AFA Vision and Programming Work Group to develop a quality self assessment template for SFUSD’s ExCEL afterschool providers and school principals to reflect on their afterschool programs and plan for future improvements.
• DCYF continued to support the online Afterschool for All Program Locator at www.SFKids.org where families can search by neighborhood, age, or key word for afterschool options throughout the city.

Download the Year End Report here.