#ExpandLearningDC

With advocacy season upon us, DCAYA is rallying a coalition of community partners and parents to promote increased funding for and greater access to quality community and neighborhood-based afterschool and summer learning opportunities for the District’s children and youth. Please check back here for more resources to get involved!

The time has come to step up our efforts. As other states and localities increasingly see funding for afterschool and summer learning as a major policy goal, funding in the District has actually followed a downward trend in recent years. This means still fewer program spots for the growing number of kids who need them most.

This year, through our collective efforts we intend to reverse these troubling trends in 2017 and beyond by ensuring full access to quality afterschool and summer learning opportunities for DC’s students with the greatest needs - it's time to #ExpandLearningDC!

To do this, we plan to inform the council, the mayor and other agency leaders about the positive impact expanded learning and youth development programs have on children by highlighting the successes of quality programs right here in the District, and to seek a stable, multi-year funding stream beginning with at least $10 million over the next year for quality afterschool and summer learning opportunities.

What Can I Do To Help Right Now?

1. Please sign our online petition! By signing, you will help bolster our advocacy and increase awareness among policy makers and education leaders of the District’s opportunity gap for afterschool and summer learning.
2. Help spread the word! We have developed a set of talking points for parents, community members and provider organizations. We invite you to download and use this info to help spread the message of #ExpandLearningDC through social media. (We also welcome your feedback on these tools as we continue to strengthen and refine our message!)
3. If you're a community provider, please tell us about your work! We have also created a 10-question survey for expanded learning community partners to collect fresh data about the impact of afterschool and summer learning in DC. This survey will provide invaluable data for budget hearings in April! 

When Can I Testify to Council and How Do I Sign Up?

The most crucial budget hearing dates for expanded learning are for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation (DC Trust), which funds afterschool and summer learning. 

The hearing dates with links to sign up to testify are:

• DCPS Budget Hearing: Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 10 am in Room 412; Committee on Education, click here to sign up to testify
• DC Trust Budget Hearing: Friday, April 22, 2016 at 10 am in Room 120; Committee on Health and Human Services, contact Malcolm Cameron to testify

What Else Can I Do?

We will be updating this page frequently in the coming weeks with more advocacy tools, including more key dates including an advocacy day in the spring. Thank you for your support and partnership!

For more information on DCAYA's Expanded Learning work and to get involved in #ExpandLearningDC, please contact Joseph Gavrilovich.