Since its beginning in 2000, Massachusetts 2020 has focused on increasing educational opportunities for children and youth. With children today spending only 20% of their waking hours in school, Massachusetts 2020’s first initiatives centered on improving the availability and improving the quality of afterschool programs for students.
The traditional school calendar of 180 six-hour days means that each afternoon during the school year and everyday during the summer, families need a place where their children can be safe and well-cared for. In decades past, a majority of children lived in families where a parent was at home full-time and they could come home after school. But, in today’s society, over 70% of American children live in families where all adults in the household work outside the home. As a result, there has been tremendous growth in after-school and summer programs (commonly called out-of-school time or OST programs) over the past decade.
Despite this growth, only 50% of children participate in any form of OST program, and earlier this decade, parents of nearly 500,000 children were seeking more OST programming in Massachusetts. In addition, OST programs often suffer from high staff turnover limiting their capacity to develop high-quality programming. In order to help fill these gaps, Massachusetts 2020 has, over the last eight years, led several initiatives to expand and improve OST programs.
Listed below are Massachusetts 2020’s six signature OST initiatives. Click on each heading to learn more.
After-School for All Partnership
In 2001, Massachusetts 2020 led the formation of Boston’s After-School for All Partnership, a five-year effort supported by the City of Boston, businesses, foundations, and non-profit organizations to support the expansion of quality after-school and summer programming for children in Boston. The After-School for All Partnership included fifteen funding partners who together raised more then $32 million for the effort and committed to work together toward three goals: (1) expanding the availability of quality after-school programs; (2) helping after-school providers to integrate high-impact learning activities into their programs; and (3) supporting efforts to create sustainable public revenue sources to fund a system of quality after-school programs. The Partnership launched five significant initiatives and in 2005 officially merged with the Mayor’s 2:00-to-6:00 After-School Initiative to become an independent 501 c(3) organization, Boston After School & Beyond. Click here for more information on Boston After School & Beyond.
After-School Literacy Coaching Initiative
Massachusetts 2020 designed and managed the Afterschool Literacy Coaching Initiative (LCI) in conjunction with Boston’s After-School for All Partnership. The LCI seeks to enable the integration of high-impact learning activities into programs by providing program staff across Boston the opportunity to participate in intensive on-site coaching from literacy experts over the course of a full school year.
The Middle School Initiative
The Middle School Initiative was an innovative public-private partnership to expand after-school learning opportunities for middle-school children across Massachusetts. The Middle School Initiative (MSI) expanded the nationally recognized Citizen Schools after-school apprenticeship model to communities throughout the Commonwealth, serving 600 students annually. The Citizen Schools program connects middle school students with adult volunteers in hands-on learning which helps students develop the academic and leadership skills they need to do well in school, get into college, and become leaders in their careers and communities. The initiative supported programs in five cities across Massachusetts.
Partners for Students Success
Partners for Student Success (PSS) is a multi-year initiative that aims to more tightly align in-school, out-of-school and community social service resources to ensure that struggling students get the support they need to succeed. PSS grew out of a working group chaired by Massachusetts 2020’s President and the Chief of Staff to the Superintendent of Boston Public Schools and is now managed by Boston After School & Beyond in collaboration with the City of Boston, Boston Public Schools, and philanthropic, nonprofit and civic organizations. For more information on PSS, contact Boston After School & Beyond at (617) 345-5322.
Keeping Kids on Track
In 2002, Massachusetts 2020, in partnership with United Way organizations from across the state, launched Keeping Kids on Track, a statewide after-school campaign designed to raise public awareness of the need for: 1) every child to have safe and productive opportunities during the hours of the day that they were not in school; 2) every family to have the tools to ensure their children used their out-of-school time well; and 3) every community to take the leadership necessary to develop out-of-school opportunities that best matched their children’s needs and strengths. Keeping Kids on Track worked to elevate out-of-school time to a top civic priority, leverage public and private resources to support children and families’ needs, and to ensure children in Massachusetts have access to quality after-school and summer programming through their communities. KKOT led directly to the formation of the Middle School Initiative.
School Sites Initiative
In 2002, the After-School for All Partnership launched the School Sites Initiative (SSI) to significantly expand enrollment at 17 school-based after-school programs in Boston while maintaining quality, improving learning, and increasing access to sustainable sources of funding. SSI, co-chaired by Massachusetts 2020 and The Boston Foundation, brought together eleven public and private funders committed to supporting this expansion. Overall, significant program growth was achieved, with programs adding almost 1,000 new slots to their programs, an average growth of 90% per site. The initiative also saw impressive cost/child savings at $1,000 reduction per student (30% savings). Click here for a copy of the final SSI report, outlining the lessons learned, at the initiative's close, in expanding after-school programs at school sites..
