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See how partners have used Afterschool for All
to build support for their own efforts and to
move afterschool forward
Click
here to share ways in which you have used
Afterschool for All to build support for afterschool
in your community. We would love to share your
experiences with the Afterschool for All community.
Check out examples of cases where partners have
successfully used Afterschool for All to:
Reasons that prominent individuals and organizations have signed on to Afterschool for All include:
Value & Uses of Afterschool for All at the Local Level
- As a uniting focus and rallying point for
loosely affiliated organizations giving them
a common cause.
Examples:
- Judith Vaughan-Prather, the Executive
Director of Montgomery County Commission
for Women, wrote the following about Afterschool for All "I think that this is a great way for
our commissions to easily support an important
initiative, to use our collective strength,
and to achieve some visibility for CFW's
at the same time." To date, more than a
dozen women's commissions have signed on
to the project.
- Don Crary, the State Director at the Annie
E. Casey Foundation, is working to secure
the support of more than 40 Kids Count state
network agencies. To date, more than half
of them have signed on. Mr. Crary has indicated
that many of his state network directors
regularly visit the Project 2010 website
to see which Kids Count agencies have not
yet signed on so that they can encourage
them to do so.
- As a resource for finding likeminded organizations
and individuals in order to build local partnerships.
Example:
- Change4Change, a New Orleans based youth
serving organization recently informed us
that despite the devastation incurred by
Hurricane Katrina they are working to form
a coalition of local Afterschool for All partners
that will serve as a resource for youth
in need of afterschool services. The coalition,
which they have named Change Point Coalition,
will collect and post afterschool opportunities
that each Afterschool for All partner provides
at a centralized and easily accessible site.
Change4Change credits Project 2010 and the
Afterschool Alliance as being instrumental
in getting their organization off the ground
and in providing the framework from which
to establish a local afterschool presence.
- As a leveraging tool to gain support from
targeted local organizations.
Examples:
- Jill Riemer at the Georgia Partnership
for Youth Investment recently contacted
us to request Afterschool for All materials in
anticipation of a local business summit.
Ms. Riemer intends to use the list of Project
2010 corporate partners to leverage support
from local businesses. Ms. Riemer reports
that while gaining support for afterschool
from the business community is often challenging,
businesses are far more likely to be receptive
and engaged when they see that other, highly
respected, corporations have already pledged
their support. Afterschool for All not only offers
easy access to that list of respected supporting
corporations, but a place for these corporations
to be recognized for their leadership on
this popular and pragmatic issue.
- We are currently working with a group
of high school students in Buffalo, NY,
who have taken on promoting afterschool
for all with incredible energy. This resulted
from one of the students attending the Afterschool
Alliance's Challenge event in May 2005 and
her desire to engage her high school in
the effort. The 2,000 students at her high
school are currently running a postcard
campaign targeting local leaders and elected
officials, calling on them to join Project
2010.
- As a means of influencing policy makers by
demonstrating its national scope and high profile
support.
Example:
- Julie Lesitsky, a leader of the District
14 Pennsylvania PTA, recently contacted
us as she was preparing for an upcoming
regional PTA conference. Ms. Lesitsky is
interested in capitalizing on Project 2010's
national scope, non-partisan standing and
high profile supporters to make the case
to the regional School Districts that their
lack of afterschool provision is unacceptable.
She believes that armed with the list of
Afterschool for All supporters, the school district
will see that this is not what she described
as "the incessant buzz of local PTA complaints
in the administration's ears," but rather
a larger and more powerful voice; one that
is mirrored throughout the nation and is
being addressed at the highest levels of
government and industry. Ms. Lesitsky believes
that armed with the list of Afterschool for All
supporters, the District 14 PTA will be
able to present an argument for afterschool
that demands recognition, consideration
and finally action on behalf of their children.
- As an organizing function and means of generating
more extensive dialogues about afterschool.
Example:
- Angie Garling and the Alameda County Child
Care Planning Council's experience in Alameda
County, CA, offers an excellent example
of successfully using Afterschool for All as a
local organizing function. Angie and her
group used the campaign to build a local
base of support and engage local decision
makers in an extensive dialogue around the
issue of inadequate funding for, and provision
of, afterschool programs in Alameda County.
- As a resource for finding individuals and
organizations who have taken a first step and
might be willing to be further engaged in local
afterschool efforts.
- Examples of this taking place in local
communities around the country have been
reported to us on an ongoing basis by phone
and email. People simply visit the Afterschool for All website, search for partners in their
area, and make a phone call: "I noticed
that you are listed as a supporter of Afterschool
For All. Would you be willing
to come down to our afterschool program
sometime and talk to the students about
what it's like to be a police officer?"
Reasons that prominent individuals and organizations have signed on to Afterschool for All:
- To gain recognition for supporting a nationally
popular and important issue - linking individual
and organizational names to a good cause.
Examples:
- Six governors have signed on to the Project
citing the opportunity to register their
support for afterschool programs while receiving
recognition for their leadership on the
issue.
- The National Basketball Association signed
on to Afterschool for All as a means of registering
their support for afterschool, then expressed
interest in working with the Alliance to
broaden their involvement in the cities
that their teams represent. This further
engagement will highlight both the NBA's
interest in reaching out to the communities
in which they are active, and their commitment
to the growing need for afterschool on a
national scale.
- Shannon Holmes at the US Conference of
Mayors (USCM) reports that Project 2010's
straightforward goals and clear message
make it easy to promote to their association
of mayors. Project 2010 provides the USCM
the opportunity to connect their constituency
to a bi-partisan, national initiative. Hundreds
of mayors from around the country are participating
in the Project as a result.
- To contribute to the legitimacy and visibility
of the issue.
Example:
- A number of former governors have pledged
their support for this project (including
former North Carolina Governor James B.
Hunt, former South Carolina Governor Richard
W. Riley and former West Virginia Governor
Gaston Caperton), not out of a political
rationalization but because they understand
that the inclusion of their names on this
list will underscore the importance of the
campaign.
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