Grant Details

• Increase students’ career and college readiness by offering high-quality remediation activities in core academic areas such as language arts and mathematics and enrichment activities including arts and culture, youth development experiences, and physical activity; 
• Increase positive student behavior by infusing social, emotional, and character development into the program; 
• Engage adult family members of participating students through participation in an array of parental involvement activities; and
• Establish and maintain partnerships and collaborative relationships to ensure participants’ access to all available resources through coordinated efforts and to sustain programs. 

The 21st CCLC program intends to fund quality afterschool programs operated by knowledgeable and creative staff in partnership with schools and community agencies. To further enhance the impact on student achievement and career and college readiness programs will implement the following components: 

• Align project activities with school-day learning through intentional planning and on-going communication between school-day (both public and non-public) and 21st CCLC program staff in order to improve participant achievement; 
• Support regularly-scheduled communication between school-day staff and program staff; 
• Promote combined, professional development opportunities between school-day/district and 21st CCLC program staff, including professional learning communities; 
• Create a youth-centered environment, including planning with participating youth to design learning experiences that are relevant and interesting to them; Integrate cross-content information and skills by focusing on one of the following themes:  science, technology, math, and engineering (STEM), civic engagement, career awareness and exploration, or visual and performing arts; 
• Provide opportunities for experiential learning, problem solving, self-direction, creativity, exploration, and expression, by using a guided-inquiry approach to promote perseverance, curiosity, leadership, responsibility, and self-confidence; 
• Establish a summer program that engages youth in learning and reduces the potential for “summer learning loss”; 
• Create and maintain partnerships that produce tangible resources and will directly benefit 21st CCLC participants; 
• Offer families of youth served by the program opportunities for literacy and related educational development; 
• Utilize action research methodology to evaluate and improve the program design in order to optimize positive participant outcomes, including academic achievement, engagement in learning, school attendance, social and communication skills, positive behavior and healthy choices; and 
• Document the project design, findings and outcomes for replication.