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Civic Spaces: Retooling Public Libraries to Attract and Engage Teens
Public libraries represent community spaces in which teens who seek to cultivate their passions and interests can explore, create, and make progress in a low stakes environment. This article describes the powerful role civic institutions such as libraries can play during the out-of-school hours.
Connecting School and Afterschool: 15 Ways to Improve Partnerships
This document provides concrete strategies and suggestions for strengthening the relationship and partnerships between schools and afterschool programs, including investigating the variety of boards, committees, leadership teams, and meetings that are organized through the school as well as creating portfolios of student work which can be shared with school personnel.
Engaging Library Partners in 4-H Programming
Though books and literacy programs are still at the forefront of a library’s purpose, libraries also partner with local organizations to provide youth development programs. This article describes a partnership between a 4H program in Baltimore County and the local public library.
Strategy Guide: Strengthening Partnerships and Building Public Will for Out-of-School Time Programs
A joint publication of the National League of Cities and the Wallace Foundation, this guide highlights three key strategies that mayors and other city leaders can use to promote partnerships and build public will in support of out-of-school time programs, such as keeping out-of-school time on the public agenda and lead efforts by to establish a common set of outcomes and a shared vision for out-of-school time.
Strengthening Partnerships: Research Brief
A research brief designed for 21st CCLCs, but applicable to all OST programs, that describes the benefits of partnerships as well as the connections between partnerships and program quality.