News

Program Spotlight

Junior Achievement was started in 1919 as an afterschool program for high school students to help them learn business skills. Students started a company, formed a business plan, sold a product or service, and learned leadership skills through the program. Today, Junior Achievement has over 100 U.S. offices and many more throughout the world, supporting a K-12 program offered to schools, afterschool programs, clubs, and more. The mission is still the same, however – to help kids understand the fundamentals of the free enterprise system. In doing so, Junior Achievement is equipping kids with the skills they need to succeed. For more information on Junior Achievement, go to www.ja.org. If you would like to contact the Boston-area office, please call Kelly Barnstead, Education Manager, at 617-331-7951.

The NetSmartz Workshop Many parents, teachers, and other adults are concerned about the risk that misguided Internet use presents, especially when children are using the Internet. In response to this concern, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children have developed the NetSmartz Workshop. Using the website, www.netsmartz.org, parents, educators, children, and teens can each find pages dedicated to informing them of the risks involved in using the Internet. For educators and parents there are all sorts of resources with guidelines on how and when to use them. For kids there are games, activities, and even email accounts. Check out the website for more information: www.netsmartz.org.

New Initiative

Afterschool Investment Project The Afterschool Investment Project, a collaboration of the Finance Project and the Child Care Bureau, has released a new strategy brief entitled, Promoting Health and Fitness in Afterschool Settings: Strategies for Program Leaders and Policymakers. Aimed at reducing childhood obesity through more active and nutritional programming at afterschool programs, the strategy brief also addresses how to fund these programs as well as increase policy support for this kind of programming. The Afterschool Investment Project is also unveiling a new web resource called FitSource which will be searchable by various phrases like, “games,” “information for parents,” or “recipes.” Programs can use this resource as a way to easily incorporate new ideas into their programming, enhancing the fitness and nutrition of their programs. The emphasis will be on low-cost or no-cost ideas. Check out www.nccic.org/afterschool to keep yourself updated.

Research

Making Out-of-School Time Matter: Evidence for an Action Agenda This report, prepared for the Wallace Foundation by the RAND Corporation, is a comprehensive literature review of research on OST. The report focuses on community-based organizations (CBOs) offering group-based afterschool programs to school-aged (6-18) children. In conducting the literature review, the RAND Corporation identified and addressed the following issues as central to the OST field: the level of demand for services, the effectiveness of programs, the components of quality, and how to encourage participation and build capacity. The report systematically presents a broad overview of the history of the field, as well as the issues outlined above. Each overview looks at the relevant research methods, evaluates them, and then evaluates the available literature. Find the full report at: www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG242.