Out-of-School Time Toolkit

Site Overview

Content Descriptions

• About

  The About page gives:

  • Overview of the United Way's perspective on OST
  • Summary of how to use the toolkit
  • Link to the Learning Modules, which allow you to explore content provided in the Toolkit in a more interactive manner.
• Featured Topics

  The Featured Topics section highlights interrelated fields that impact the OST environment. It includes:

  • Attendance
  • College & Career Readiness
  • Common Core
  • Healthy Out-of-School Time (HOST) / Healthy Eating & Physical Activity (HEPA)
  • Literacy
  • Mentoring
  • Social Emotional Learning
  • Special Populations
  • STEAM
  • Summer Learning
• Engagement

  The Engagement section discusses how United Ways can engage community members to develop shared aspirations for children and youth and can demonstrate the role OST plays in helping communities reach these goals. It provides insight into:

  • Who to engage in OST efforts
  • Ways to engage volunteers effectively
  • Tips on effective ways to engage stakeholders
  • United Way examples on engaging key people
  • Additional resources on engagement
• Advocacy

  The Advocacy part of the toolkit goes into how your United Way can use your positioning your local community as well as data on the positive impact OST programs have on children and youth to advocate for OST support and improvement. It discusses:

  • How to make the case for OST
  • How to use community-level data
  • What tips are helpful for successful advocacy
  • What other United Ways have done
  • What additional resources are available
• Coalitions

  The Coalitions section discusses how to United Ways can develop an OST coalition as an effective strategy for engaging institutions and individuals to create a shared vision for out-of-school time. This section includes:

  • Overview of the importance of building a coalition
  • Description of the roles that United Ways can play in OST coalitions
  • Specific actions your United Way can take in coalition-building efforts
  • Tips on how to effectively initiate and sustain an OST coalition
  • Examples of other United Ways' coalition work
  • Additional resources on coalitions
• Quality

  The Quality part of the toolkit discusses the necessity for OST programs to not just exist, but to be held to quality standards, in order to truly have a positive impact on children and youth. The Quality section includes:

  • Overview of why quality matters & the positive impact of high-quality OST programs
  • New quality-focused movements in the field (STEAM, literacy, mentoring, and summer learning)
  • Description of the elements that make a program "high-quality"
  • Tips on how to improve OST program quality
  • Examples of how other United Ways are prioritizing quality
  • Additional resources on improving program quality
• Data

  The Data section focuses on how United Ways can help ensure that out-of-school time strategies are based on research, and how to evaluate program results and strategically communicate an OST coalition's efforts to strengthen outcomes for OST program participants. This section includes:

  • Overview on how to use data to drive impact
  • Tips on how to use data to improve OST program quality
  • Examples from other United Ways who do work with data
  • Additional resources on data collection and use
• Action-Agendas

  The Action-Agenda portion of this toolkit explains how United Ways, working as part of broader coalitions, can use expert and public knowledge to develop a focused action agenda for out-of-school time. This section discusses:

  • How to develop an action-agenda & why it's important
  • Why the United Way is in a great position to lead the creation of action agendas
  • What strong elements of an action-agenda include
  • Tips on the action agenda-planning process
  • Examples of other United Ways work with action agendas
  • Additional resources on developing and using action-agendas
• Funding

  The Funding section discusses how United Ways can add considerable expertise to the coalition's sustainability strategies and joint planning efforts by developing multi-year plans to raise funds from a diverse group of investors to support out-of-school time strategies. It includes:

  • Overview of funding & sustaining OST efforts
  • Tips on finding sustainable funding sources
  • Examples of what other United Ways are doing in terms of finding funding
  • Additional resources on locating sustainable funding sources
• Research

  The Research section explains the importance of your United Way staying updated on the latest research in the field so that you can articulate the relevance and the need for out-of-school time efforts to potential donors, coalition members, and key actors. This section includes:

  • Overview of the importance of research
  • Explanation of the positive, research-supported outcomes of OST
  • Tips on how to use research to take a comprehensive approach to OST
  • Additional resources on key research in the field
• Tools

  The Tools section provides a list of resources and tools that your organization can use to strengthen OST programs in your community. It is divided into the same sections as this Toolkit, and it includes only the resources that act as tools, not all of the research reports and program examples included in the Additional Resources and United Way Examples pages.