BOCYF Projects

Opportunities to Promote Child and Adolescent Development in the After-School Hours

The Board on Children, Youth, and Families and its Forum on Adolescence convened a workshop on October 21, 1999 to examine research on the developmental needs of children and adolescents, ages 5 to 14 years, and the ways in which they spend their time after school. The workshop examined the types of after school programs that have been developed for children and teenagers, with attention to the program structures, implementation issues, desired outcomes, and evaluation methodologies, and the policy implications of this research. The overarching goal of this activity was to synthesize the current knowledge base about after school programs as a strategy for ensuring the safety, security, development, and well being of child and adolescents, and consider the implications of this knowledge for the next generation of after school programs.

This activity was coordinated with the publication by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation of a 1999 volume of The Future of Children on the topic of out of school time. Chapters discussing the developmental needs of 5 to 14 year olds and examining the opportunities and challenges of designing, implementing, and evaluating after school programs provided the focus of the Board’s workshop. In addition, a diverse group of participants at the workshop, including researchers, service providers, and policy makers, ensured that a range of perspectives on child and adolescent development, after school child care programs, and community-level youth development programs were represented at the workshop.

The workshop used a panel format to provide a set of research-based presentations made by individuals familiar with the development and evaluation of after school programs in the United States. The speakers and participants examined the domains of child and adult health and behavior that appear to be influenced by after school programs, the factors that affect the design and implementation of intervention strategies, the databases and measures associated with the evaluation of such programs, and methodologies typically used to evaluate these programs. Discussants followed each set of panel presentations, to build upon the presentations, followed by open discussion. A workshop summary report, entitled After-School Programs to Promote Child and Adolescent Development: Summary of a Workshop, incorporating the workshop papers and discussions was be widely distributed among federal and state health, family and community services, foundations, and community-based organizations and experts in the United States.

For further information, please contact Jennifer Gootman, Study Director, Committee on Community-Level Programs for Youth, at 202-334-2034.