Keeping the Lights On After School in DC

As part of Afterschool Awareness month, DCAYA will be featuring the work of our community-based partners throughout the month of October. This week, in concert with the Afterschool Alliance’s Lights On Afterschool, we take a look at the need and present funding for afterschool programs in DC.

October is Afterschool Awareness Month, and on and around October 22, events will be held nationally for Lights On Afterschool to underscore the need for investment in afterschool programs. In DC, this need is especially heightened. More and more District families are seeking after school enrichment opportunities for their kids while at the same time, fewer public dollars are being invested in proven programs.

“These programs inspire children to learn beyond an instructional classroom setting,” says Jodi Grant, executive director of the national Afterschool Alliance. “By providing one-on-one mentoring and homework help, healthy snacks and team sports, new STEM learning opportunities such as robotics and computer programming, expanded time to learn art and music in a studio setting, and countless other hands-on opportunities, afterschool programs build upon classroom learning to promote positive youth development and motivate each child and youth toward college and job readiness.”

The Afterschool Alliance has promoted a growing body of research that shows afterschool programs and expanded learning programs keep kids safe, help working families, and encourage increased parental involvement in children’s learning. Data gathered by the Alliance have shown that for every child in an afterschool program nationally, there are two more whose parents say they would participate if a program were available. So, how does DC stack up?

DC Afterschool Investment Falls Short of Demand

The Afterschool Alliance’s survey data show that in DC, the unmet demand is greater than in any state: An estimated 72% of children in the District in grades 6 through 8 would participate in an afterschool program if one were available to them (compared to 40% nationally).

Community-based providers of afterschool programming in the District have a proven track record for tangible outcomes. Yet there is presently little political will toward expanding access in order to match the level of demand in the community. In fact, as other states and localities increasingly see funding for afterschool as a major policy goal, funding for expanded learning and enrichment programming (afterschool and during the summer) in the District (and youth development programs in general) has actually followed a downward trend in recent years.

Less funding means fewer spots in afterschool programs for the kids who need them most. Just last month, due to funding constraints, the DC Trust cut $460,000 from their out of school time grants and 24 organizations saw their funding discontinued. As a result of these cuts, as many as 1,200 expanded learning slots were lost.

In the wake of these cuts, a $1.2 million allocation to the DC Trust has been proposed to fund a series of “mini-grants” to five target neighborhoods. While the grants are well-intentioned to target funding toward neighborhoods most at-risk, the structure of the grant distribution has youth afterschool enrichment and mentoring programs competing with violence prevention and family support programs for the same pot of funding, and in a limited geographic area. Further, with each grant capped at $25,000, we remain concerned that the scope of the funding is insufficient to significantly affect outcomes.

In order to keep the lights on after school in DC, the District needs to return to having stable, multi-year funding to quality organizations. Only with the assurance of a stable funding stream will the District’s strong network of community-based providers be able to better collaborate with more schools and expand the reach of afterschool expanded learning and enrichment opportunities to the kids and families who have the greatest need.

DCAYA thanks the Afterschool Alliance for contributing to this post and for their work toward raising awareness on the need for afterschool investment. For more information on DCAYA's Expanded Learning work, please contact Joseph Gavrilovich.

Where Does the Money Go?

With the intent to outline the funding streams that sustain reconnection opportunities for DC youth, the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates (DCAYA), in partnership with The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, releases “Connecting Youth to Opportunity: A Resource Map for the District’s Disconnected Youth Dollars.” The network of services navigated by disconnected youth is complex, with the District offering several programs and services across eight city agencies. The resource map is a tool for those seeking to utilize the District’s resources most effectively and to understand the complexities behind funding this unique, at-risk population. It is important to note that due to the budget process and ability to track actual vs. budgeted expenses, the roadmap is based on 2012 and 2013 budgets. However, we will be updating the roadmap annually to better provide tracking and trends on spending and access. So with that caveat,  what does this initial roadmap tell us about DC’s inventory of reconnection services? DCAYA has three key take-aways:

First, while cross agency coordination has improved to a degree, there still remains room for improvement. In order to capture the dynamic needs of youth and maximize investments in our public systems, agencies must collaborate to share services, expertise, and resources. One example, which is seen in the funding map, is the Pathways for Young Adults program. The Department of Employment Services (DOES) is partnering with the Community College of the District of Columbia (UDCC) to address the needs of disconnected youth by supplementing traditional occupational training with the chance to learn key life skills. Intentional partnerships between our workforce system and sister agencies is necessary if we are going to build a comprehensive and efficient workforce development system that youth can readily access and transition through as their needs evolve.

Second, the resource map also reveals a severe scarcity of year-round programming specific to disconnected young people. While as of 2012, just under $12,000,000 is spent on the six-week-long Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), less than $5,000,000 was slated for year-round workforce development training for out-of-school youth. Even though adult training programs are available for youth over 18, the rate at which youth access these programs is low, given their overrepresentation in our unemployment rate. Higher-need, less-skilled youth require modified programming that meets them where they’re at. We need to invest in year round training and job placement services that are designed to meet the unique needs of the disconnected youth population.

Third, and perhaps one of the most poignant pieces of the map, is the lack of local funding directed to youth who face the greatest risks of disconnection at key points of transition, like aging out of foster care, exiting the juvenile justice system, becoming young parents, or acclimating as first generation immigrations. We know these youth are especially vulnerable to disconnection and the resources and support they require are often a bit different and deeper than their peers. Yet, the District invests less than $1,500,000 in local dollars to these particularly high risk populations, while federal funds only account for $5,191,409 more.

In reviewing the resource roadmap and comparing various agency programs side-by-side, it is easy to see the startling reality of where the gaps and opportunities lie for disconnected youth. By understanding the various funding streams within our system of reconnection foundations, community advocates and policymakers can target future investments and strengthen our ability to intervene early and effectively. Join us in working with the Council to ensure that the 2015 budget includes strategic investments that connect youth to opportunities.

View "Connecting Youth to Opportunity: A Resource Map of the District's Disconnected Youth Dollars."  

Amy Dudas is the disconnected youth and workforce development policy analyst at DC Alliance of Youth Advocates. This FY'15 budget season, Amy will be citing trends in disconnected youth funding to advocate for the support of a re-engagement center in conjunction with funding to grow capacity in alternative education programs.

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