- Afterschool Alliance Navigate to the Start a Program page. This page provides resources to walk you through the basic steps of starting an afterschool program.
- Beyond the Bell Start-Up Guide This research-based resource guides you through the steps of starting a high-quality afterschool program and includes templates and tools to help you achieve your goal. You can find additional tools for purchase, including the recently released Fourth Edition of their guide, here.
- Expanding Minds and Opportunities This powerful collection of articles presents bold and persuasive evidence—as well as examples of effective practices, programs, and partnerships—that demonstrate how opportunities after school and during the summer are yielding positive outcomes for students, communities, and families.
- Extended Notes This resource will equip you with the latest resources and information to help you establish a program with rich, engaging activities.
- Kentucky School-Age Program Standards Serving as a baseline of quality, these standards are organized in seven components: 1) Environments; 2) Evaluation and Assessment; 3) Health, Safety, and Nutrition; 4) Professional Development; 5) Program Management; 6) Program Structure; and 7) Relationships. Each component begins with a guiding principle that defines the intent of the component followed by elements of quality. The elements are then supported by specific standards that are broad-based, allowing for encouraging and celebrating the uniqueness of each program.
- SEDL Start-up Guide This tool is full of resources for programming, planning, managing, and sustaining your afterschool program. Many of the resources will also apply to before-school and summer programs.
- 21st Century Community Learning Center Grants Provides federal funding for afterschool and summer programs and is managed by the Kentucky Department of Education.
- Afterschool Alliance Maintains a searchable funding database for opportunities for afterschool programs and provides expert advice for writing proposals, identifying funding sources, and sustaining programs. You can also find opportunities to support afterschool STEM here.
- The New York Life Foundation is seeking applications from afterschool, summer, or expanded learning programs serving middle-school youth. In total, $1.8 million in grants will be awarded to programs all across the country. This is the sixth year of the Foundation’s Aim High grant competition, bringing the total amount awarded to $7.95 million. A total of 40 grant awards will be made nationwide. The deadline to apply is Tuesday, February 1st, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. ET.
- Grantmakers for Education Provides guidance to philanthropy on the latest trends and research in education.
The activities and resources in the Summer Activity Guides are intentionally designed to support youth-serving summer programs in driving consistent engagement and providing ongoing opportunities for youth skill-building and emotional well-being. In addition to the activities for youth, supplemental materials will be available to support professional development and enhance family engagement.
The Guides include 150 original activities and challenges organized by four different age groups (5-9) (10-12) (13-15) (16-18). The activities are adaptable for in-person and virtual instruction, or a hybrid of both, as well as sent as take-home packets
Click here to download all five units!