We are committed to responding to and anticipating the needs of afterschool providers and youth throughout our community. Our monthly Provider Meetings serve as the launching point for many of our activities, serving as a forum to discuss, plan, update, share resources, and develop partnership with one another. Any interested community member is welcome to attend these meetings.

Afterschool Partnership works to establish linkages that support the improvement of afterschool programs, as well as expand the broader network of organizations serving youth. Relationships are cultivated and maintained with other regional, state, and national organizations to further the mission of the Afterschool Partnership and our community providers.

A youth-led initiative that will capture the work of all resources that directly serve youth in New Orleans. Youth began mapping on February 7, 2009 in Central City and will continue with the mapping of New Orleans complete by Fall 2010. We are partnering with Youthline America and local youth to create this valuable and interactive resource.

Afterschool Partnership provides a calendar of training opportunities available through-out the community and nationally, accessible via webinar or conference settings. To support the expansion and quality of programs serving youth ages 10–18 the Partnership collaborates with local organizations and Academy for Educational Development to provide Advancing Youth Development directly to New Orleans afterschool providers.

Advancing Youth Development, developed by the Academy for Educational Development, is a nationally recognized course and curriculum for those working with youth ages 10–18 and their supervisors. Afterschool Partnership began offering AYD as a direct response to the need for quality programming for New Orleans youth. The course provides 30-hours of direct instruction and interactive facilitation aimed at providing each youth worker with a operating knowledge of the definition of youth development and the core youth development principles: that all young people seek to meet their fundamental needs, that youth should be challenged to achieve their highest potential, and that caring adults provide youth with a full range of supports necessary to succeed.

Afterschool Partnership is pleased to offer a Program Evaluation Tool Box. These tools can be customized to your specific program needs and goals, or used in their basic formats. We can administer these tools for you, manage and analyze data, and package results for presentations to staff, board members, and funders. Or, we can provide training around program evaluation and help equip you and your staff to manage program evaluation in-house.

Afterschool Partnership is committed to supporting the development of a strong city-wide strategy for the youth of New Orleans. Our work around this goal includes providing best practice information from around the county, funding research, and the convening of governmental agencies, community groups, non-profit organizations, youth program provides, youth and parents. In 2010 Afterschool Partnership has made a vision for youth an organizational priority and hope to work with all our elected officials and our fellow citizens on this effort.

After facing a critical shortage of summer youth programs post-Katrina, a group of local foundations and organizations created the Unified Summer Grants Collaborative in 2006 to support safe activities for New Orleans-area youth. The collaborative has continued to address the ongoing need for affordable, safe, educational and recreational youth activities and to leverage partner resources through this collaborative effort.

Over three years, the Collaborative has awarded grants totaling $3.4 million to a variety of summer programs across the New Orleans area that serve vulnerable, low-income youth, who, with this support, have had opportunities to engage in academic enrichment, cultural and arts programs, sports and physical recreation, cooking, and nutrition activities.