December 2002

The City of Oakland is gearing up to expand after-school activities with the creation of a new organizational structure that will unite policy and planning efforts, help leverage additional funding for after-school programs, create common standards for selecting sites for new programs, and more. The new structure will be staffed by Safe Passages http://www.safepassages.org/ and will report to Safe Passages' Board.

The new structure was laid out in a report prepared by Safe Passages' After-School Committee in October 2002. According to the report, "While there has been a long-time commitment to after-school activities in Oakland, the impetus for this report was driven by several factors: a demand from the community for an increase in resources for after-school programs; a recognition by policymakers that better coordination of services could result in positive outcomes for more young people; and the looming expiration of millions of dollars in federal after-school program support." (The issue of federal funding involves the shifting of administration of the federally funded 21st Century Program from the federal government to the states, and a resulting delay in funding.)

Safe Passages' After-School Committee includes representatives from many entities involved in after-school programming such as the Department of Human Services, Parks and Recreation, Oakland Public Library, Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, East Bay Community Foundation, the city council and the school district. Oakland's Education Partnership Committee, consisting of members of the city council and school board, asked this group to make recommendations on how to increase the coordination of after-school activities.

The recommendations include the new structure - Oakland After-School Coordinating Team - that will include the representatives of the public and private entities involved in the After-School Committee as well as community representatives. The Coordinating Team will have the authority to make programmatic decisions and will report to the Safe Passages Board - the only place where all of the key decision makers sit together on a regular basis in a neutral setting.

A new, full-time after-school coordinator will be hired by and housed at Safe Passages. "The committee discussed various options for where to house the new staff and decided that Safe Passages would be the most appropriate because of its accountability to all partners through its board structure," the report notes.

The Coordinating Team will ensure coordination of:

• Program monitoring and evaluation - a common reporting and evaluation strategy will reduce the administrative burden on service providers, provide consistent data to support planning among partners, help plan for technical assistance needs, and allow the Team to track whether the programs are having the intended effects on improving the lives of children and youth.
• Technical assistance - coordination will mean less duplication of services and an increased ability to address individual needs of providers.
• Funding/expansion - the Team will look at all possible sources of funding and think creatively about how existing funding streams could be used to support programming. Coordinated efforts will help leverage additional outside sources.
• Communication - centralized communication will help stakeholders (parents, teachers, political leaders, etc.) keep informed about what is happening and will provide for greater input into the efforts.
• Policy and planning - centralization will decrease the potential for overlap in efforts around after-school programs.
• Site identification - the Team will create a citywide gap analysis for after-school programming and common standards for identifying sites for new or expanded programs.

This effort represents an expansion of Safe Passages' strategies. Its board confirmed that the new responsibilities, involving citywide after-school efforts at the elementary, middle and high school level, are well within Safe Passages' statement of purpose to "serve as the vehicle for the City of Oakland, Oakland Unified School District, Alameda County and the East Bay Community Foundation to work together, and with the broader community, to improve the quality of life for children and families in Oakland."

For more information on this website about Safe Passages, click here. For more articles on this website about after-school issues, click here.