May 2003

With the goal of developing after-school programs for every school aged child in the state, Michigan's House of Representatives recently passed a resolution calling on two state agencies, the Department of Education and the Family Independence Agency, to convene a task force called the Michigan After-School Initiative.

"This initiative represents our best opportunity in over a decade to develop statewide consensus on expanding after-school opportunities and promoting an investment strategy for children that is focused on prevention," says Dr. Grenaé Dudley, executive director of Mayor's Time. Mayor's Time welcomes passage of the resolution with not just words of praise, but dollars too. Mayor's Time will provide $50,000 of funding to complete the work of the task force. The resolution included no funding to carry out the initiative.

The task force will consist of representatives from a wide range of groups, including state agencies, foundations, law enforcement, youth service providers, business and more. Dr. Dudley will represent Mayor's Time and the City of Detroit on the task force.

The Michigan After-School Initiative would:

• Conduct an assessment of the state of after-school services in Michigan, including identification of the number of children and youth served statewide in these programs
• Identify the number and location of children and youth who are in need of after-school programs
• Identify the various funding streams currently supporting after-school programs
• Develop a plan for coordinating after-school services and for achieving the goal of providing after-school opportunities for every school aged child in the state. The plan is to include strategies to promote best practice models for after-school programs and to promote coordination and collaboration of after-school services at the local level.

"This initiative is one sign of the unprecedented political consensus regarding the significance of after-school opportunities as a social necessity that has emerged among the political leadership of both parties at the state level, in Wayne County and the City of Detroit," says Jeriel Heard, associate director of Mayor's Time.

Rep. Doug Hart (HD 73 - Rockford) sponsored the legislation creating the after-school initiative. "Providing an assessment of after-school services and developing a plan gives us a good measure of where we're at and where we're going," Hart says. "With revenue streams from federal, state and local sources and private funding, it is time that we get the full picture so that we can best determine priorities for limited resources."

For more articles on this website on after school programming, click here. For more information on this website about The Youth Connection/Mayor's Time, click here.