Sanford Health

Out of School Time (OST)

Today, many parents need to find someone to care for their school-age children for an hour or two before school starts, or anywhere from two to four hours after the school day ends. Not to mention finding care on holidays, early dismissals and during summer vacation. When you add it up, that’s a lot of time out of a school-age child’s life – time that can be spent in activities which help him or her develop physical, mental, social, and emotional skills.

School-age children do not need someone just to watch them; they require skilled caregivers that provide supervision and a safe place to be while their parents work. These caregivers need to assist children in finding their interests and talents and encourage them to practice and apply new concepts they may have learned at school.

 

Trainings:

  • Training opportunities for licensed or registered childcare providers.
     
  • Class instructors strive to help caregivers obtain information and confidence in one's ability to provide quality care for children.

Technical Assistance:

  • CHILD Staff are available to do an on site observation.  This observation provides the means to develop an action plan to assist child care programs with program improvement efforts.

 

Articles:

To access services contact us at (605) 333-0698 email us at childsrv@sanfordhealth.org

 

 

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Resources for Sustaining Programs Article

There are many excellent resources on the web for sustaining your programs. Here is a sampling of some that you don’t want to miss!

The Finance Project develops and disseminates information, knowledge, tools and technical assistance for improved policies, programs and financing strategies. Here are some examples of their latest available resources:

  • The Sustainability Planning Workbook provides a guide to writing a sustainability plan for out-of-school time and community school collaboratives. The Workbook provides, in a user-friendly step-by-step format, the conceptual framework for devising a sustainability plan. It also includes examples and templates and walks the user through the steps of sustainability planning, including defining sustainability goals, assessing assets and resources, and developing and implementing sustainability strategies.
     
  • Sustaining Comprehensive Community Initiatives: Key Elements for Success (April 2002) This strategy brief presents The Finance Project's eight-part sustainability framework. It is intended to help policymakers, program developers and other stakeholders at both state and community levels identify the basic resources needed and address the strategic decisions to assist a range of stakeholders, regardless of their initiatives' programmatic focus. This includes those who are involved with community development programs, early childhood programs, youth development programs, out-of-school time programs or other types of community-based programs that serve the needs of children and families.
     
  • Finding Funding: A Guide to Federal Sources for Out-of-School Time and Community School Initiatives. Updated in January 2003, this guide, available through The Finance Project, provides information on more than 100 federal programs that have the potential to provide funding for out-of-school time and community school initiatives. In addition, the guide describes different approaches for accessing these funds and strategies for combining different funding streams. You may also search this guide in a database format, hosted by afterschool.gov. The Coalition for Community Schools advocates for community schools as the vehicle for strengthening schools, families and communities so that together they can improve student learning. You will find many excellent resources on their website including:
     
  • Sustainability Planning Checklist:  This checklist serves to help local community school initiatives plan for the future. The checklist contains three sections:
    1. Keys to sustainability: Keys to sustaining community-school initiatives.
       
    2. Questions to ask: A series of questions for local initiatives to ask and answer while developing a sustainability plan
       
    3. Funding: Questions to help your initiative think about your funding strategy and how other funding streams can be integrated into your initiative.

The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of afterschool programs and advocating for quality, affordable programs for all children. They offer resources intended to help by providing tools and tips on accessing funding and using communications to build support for programs among local residents, community groups, businesses, and policymakers. Here are some examples from their website:

  • Detailed Information on over 30 sources of afterschool funding. Afterschool Funding. It's Out There. Know How to Get It. Multiple, varied funding streams are vital for afterschool programs to achieve sustainability. These funding sources can be found at the federal, state and local levels.
  • Check out the information in the Sustainability Workbook PDF, Designing a Sustainability Plan Worksheets, Funding Tips, Publications and Links sections and use the materials created by the organizations listed on those pages to identify the funding streams that match your needs. Then start asking for funds.

Source: Resources for Sustaining Programs
http://www.learningpt.org/gateway/sea/Resources%20for%20Sustaining%20Programs.pdf

 

7/31/2008

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