Summit attendees participated in breakout sessions focusing on either
- Afterschool Availability & Accessibility
- Supporting Afterschool Program Quality, or
- Workforce Readiness Skills.
Morning breakout sessions were devoted to identifying key priorities for each of those afterschool components, with attendees returning to those same breakout sessions after lunch to begin formulating strategies that would address the key priorities identified.
Findings from the breakout sessions revealed a similarity of needs between the topics and underscored the relevance of each component to a quality afterschool program delivery system. The need for building stronger partnerships and collaborations between community sectors was a dominant theme throughout the summit. Successful, broad-based afterschool programs for extended learning require collaboration among diverse stakeholders including schools, government facilities and venues, community groups and programs, policy makers, the business community, educators and parents. A second major area of consensus was around the realization that Arizona still has not done a credible job mapping the availability of afterschool programs statewide. Finally, policy makers stressed the need for the afterschool community to have hard data rather than anecdotal examples of the impact of afterschool programs on the successful development of Arizona’s youth.
The Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence knew when it convened the summit that it was not possible to solve all the problems or resolve all the needs surrounding afterschool programming. But the beauty of the Summit was that it was instrumental in bringing many stakeholders together for the first time to begin this conversation. It is now the Center’s challenge to now follow up with them, and others, to see how the Center can most effectively continue that conversation and develop these priorities into full-blown strategies that can be implemented.
The Summit was hosted on March 3 by the Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence, Tucson Mayor Robert Walkup, Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman and Flagstaff Mayor Sara Presler with technical and financial assistance from the National League of Cities’ Youth Education and Families Institute, the Arizona League of Cities and Towns, and the McClelland Institute for Children, Youth and Families.