WNY Women's Fund Out of School Time (OST) Initiative

 

In Buffalo, women are the dominant face of poverty in a region with some of the highest poverty rates in the nation. Teen pregnancy continues to derail thousands of young girls every year in WNY. Women are increasingly raising children on their own, and doing so while living in poverty. As noted in the January 2010 release of the Pathways to Progress report, women are on the front lines of society's balancing act of work and family, and are far from parity in leadership roles.

One of the leverage points identified in the Pathways to Progress report, as key for removing barriers faced by girls, is access to quality after school and summer programs that include mentoring opportunities, career and technical education, physical activity and academic enrichment opportunities.

To address this leverage point, the WNY Women's Fund led several community visioning sessions and created a task force whose members include representatives from the Buffalo Public Schools, Erie County Department of Social Services - Youth Services Division, out of school time provider agencies, the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County and the Buffalo Museum of Science. From that task force the Pathways to Progress Out of School Time Initiative (OST) was created based on a highly successful model from Providence Rhode Island called the Providence After School Alliance.

The goal of the Pathways OST Initiative is that all Buffalo students will have the opportunity to attend a quality out-of-school time program and that all out of school time providers will follow universal program quality standards and offer a wide array of enrichment and learning opportunities. Next fall, the OST Initiative will: 

  • Launch an after school pilot program at Buffalo Public School #59, the Dr. Charles R. Drew Science Magnet, that will promote the partnership between out-of-school time program providers, school officials and additional stakeholders. The pilot will incorporate both academic support and a large variety of enrichment activities utilizing exiting community resources. The Buffalo Public School and the pilot program will share data, fostering improvements based on the data.

  • Institutionalize a nationally-recognized assessment tool, Youth Program Quality Assessment (YPQA) in conjunction with the Youth Program Quality Intervention (YPQI), an improvement program that encourages individuals, programs and systems to focus on the quality of the experiences young people have in programs and the training needs of the staff providing the programs.

The Women's Fund along with their partners are excited to team  with Northwest Buffalo Community Center to launch the OST pilot program beginning October 2011!

 

To read the full OST Business Plan, click here.