Equipping today's youth with the skills necessary to compete in the 21st Century workforce is a top priority of our nation's schools, communities, policy makers and businesses. This issue brief examines how afterschool provides kids with the opportunity to develop skills to help them succeed in an increasingly competitive labor market.

Equipping today's youth with the necessary skills to compete in the 21st Century workforce is a top priority for our nation's schools, communities, policy makers and businesses. This issue brief examines the ways in which afterschool prepares kids to succeed in an increasingly competitive workforce.

Community Partnerships are critical to the success of afterschool and summer programs. This brief from Child Trends outlines strategies and resources for practitioners to build local partnerships and support.

This brief addresses the vital role afterschool programs play in connecting school and community resources. It is one in a series of Issue Briefs sponsored by the MetLife Foundation that addresses the benefits afterschool programs provide to children, families and communities.

This brief discusses the unique opportunities afterschool programs can offer students to prepare them for the workforce, including developing interpersonal, thinking, and leadership skills. It also cites several examples of successful programs focusing on such skills.

This brief considers the social cost of not providing afterschool programs and the high returns on such investments. It is well worth it for businesses and government alike to fund afterschool activities. This brief presents several of the benefits of investing in afterschool programs.

This brief explores how afterschool programs can help youth prepare for the workforce by offering exposure to various career fields and academic areas, which may be missed in the regular school day curriculum.

This brief explores how, by offering a safe and stable environment for youth and opportunities for school and community partnerships, afterschool programs can be a valuable resource that helps strengthen our communities.

This issue brief explores how afterschool programs can give youth the opportunity to volunteer, and in doing so, participants can learn applicable life skills, form a bond with community organizations, and discover the value of community service.

Through youth-designed and youth-implemented service projects, youth not only are able to apply their academic skills to the real world, but also donate their services to their neighborhoods. This brief explains how afterschool programs offering service-learning projects can benefit both youth and their communities.

This brief describes the role higher education institutions can play when they partner with afterschool programs. College students can offer their services as mentors, tutors, or youth workers, and faculty can provide evaluation assistance or curriculum development assistance - all of which can be beneficial to college students and higher education institutions in return.