In 1983, the Robert Bowne Foundation (RBF) intentionally focused its grantmaking on the field of Out-of-School Time (OST) Youth Literacy Education. The RBF aimed to help build, enrich, and support the ability of New York City community-based organizations to offer after school programs where children learn and flourish.
The Foundation’s vision of a thriving professional field of OST education guided its efforts to:
- Build both the educational and organizational capacity of its grantees;
- Support program evaluation as a way to strengthen and enhance afterschool programs;
- Promote advocacy efforts at the national, state, city, and community levels;
- Establish a national Afterschool Matters publication; and
- Generate and disseminate research on community-based organizations serving youth during the out-of-school hours.
