How Can I Start An ELO Program?
Chapter 4
Many questions must be asked and considerations made when a community decides to start a new ELO program. OPEL receives many requests from individuals who want to start their own program, so below are our recommendations to follow when exploring the idea.
6. Research quality expanded learning opportunities: There are numerous national programs with wonderful, high-quality resources. While this list is not exhaustive, it is a great start to understanding high-quality programs.
High quality expanded learning, afterschool and summer programs incorporate the following elements:
“While you may want to start a program immediately, some advance planning is necessary to help build a solid foundation for a quality ELO program. Full-time leadership is key to the development, quality and sustainability of ELO programs. And although there is no set amount of time for how long this planning process can take, anywhere from six to twelve months is typical to adequately prepare for opening the doors of a quality program. The sample timeline below gives you an idea of what needs to happen in this planning timeframe.”
Throughout your entire planning and implementation phase, you should make connections with potential community partners, businesses and family members for potential funding and support needs.
One of the most important things you can do is begin developing a planning committee champions who will advocate to others about the prospect of starting an ELO program in your community. Your planning committee will assist you by bringing knowledge, experience and a variety of perspectives to the planning process. Having a committee will also create buy-in from key stakeholders. Participating groups will have a greater interest in the program's success and will be important allies in expanding access to resources necessary in delivering services within the program. The size of your program will influence how many planning committee members you will need. Potential committee members may include teachers, school administrators, parents, local government representatives, park and recreation officials, church leaders or youth group representatives. Once you select and invite committee members to participate, you can schedule your first meeting. Suggested community sectors to explore in recruiting planning committee participants include the following:
EDUCATION
School district, local college or university (university offices or academic departments—Education, Math, Science, IT, Arts)
CITY GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SERVICES
Mayor’s office/city council; police department; parks and recreation office; library; health/human services department; public power companies
COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATIONS
Faith-based groups (churches, church council, faith-based organizations); Nonprofit organizations (museums, YMCA, artistic/science organizations)
BUSINESSES
Chambers of commerce; industries in your community; local businesses; local banks; hospital . During your planning and research, you may find that a program you are interested in starting already exists within your community. If that’s the case, consideration needs to be made on if you can partner with that organization to build its capacity to meet the community’s needs. The keys to building strong partnerships are open conversation and a focus on the needs of your community’s youth. Showing how collaboration both allows more children to be served across the community and expands the impact of existing organizations often helps transition potential adversaries into allies.
To build a strong, successful and sustainable ELO program, you must identify community needs and create a quality program that will respond to those needs. When considering a needs assessment, remember: you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Take time to review any recent needs assessments completed in your community and/or school. This review process will also help you identify like-minded people in your community interested in similar youth development issues. A needs assessment for programming should seek information on the following items:
Taking time to complete a needs assessment (parents, students) and analyzing the results of previous assessments will move you in the right direction and prepare you for the next step of building a vision.
Below are some brainstorming topics the planning committee can discuss related to starting an ELO program.
(Adapted from SEDL, Building and Managing Quality Afterschool Programs)
Based on the needs assessment results, your planning committee can collaborate to build a vision for your program. Building a vision will help keep the group focused on crafting a program to meet your community’s identified needs.
While you will continue to make adjustments as your program evolves, having a baseline established will help build a strong foundation for your program. As you are building this vision, the following questions should be considered:
With the heightened state of accountability, transparency and goals for supporting youth in their development and learning, programs need to establish outcomes, goals and evaluation models for implementation. It is important to note that outcomes are not the same as program goals.
Here is an example of how a vision, goal, action step and outcome fit together:
*Adapted from Beyond School Bells, Starting a Program Toolkit
As you review the results from your needs assessment and begin considering programming options, keep in mind different types of activities that would be most useful to those you seek to serve. You don’t need to focus on just one activity, as quality programs provide a variety of activities meeting the needs and interests of diverse student populations. At the same time, while it is valuable to incorporate various activities into your programming, it is equally important to identify your program’s primary goals and remain focused on these goals while exploring programming options. Having this focal point will help you in developing effective programming and securing finances. The following list can help you determine the key areas you want to focus on:
*Adapted from Beyond School Bells, Starting a Program Toolkit
While we understand that available space can be difficult to access during hours due to various teacher meetings and other events, it is important that space and location for programming are thoughtfully planned out and school building resources/space be made use of.
Establishing a strong, clearly identifiable organizational structure at the beginning will help clarify program responsibilities.
Whatever type of program you are planning, the strongest asset you will have is your staff. Generally speaking, quality staff show the following characteristics:
In general, try to keep as low a participant-to-staff ratio as you can to help develop relationships and provide personal attention to your participants.
Identifying and securing resources is one of the primary tasks of the advisory board and program leaders. While this can be a source of stress, it is worthwhile to work with your community to explore its ability and willingness to contribute to the success of your program and to help assist with securing funding.
Grants are the most common type of funding support for ELO programming. In Oklahoma, the largest grantor for ELO programming is the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Center program. Local youth bureaus, departments of human services, and city governments are other public funding sources.
Donations and Fundraising are other funding sources for an ELO program. However, before taking this on, it is important to think carefully about whether your organization has the capacity to support an individual giving campaign.
Participant Fees can be collected from individuals entering into the program. Many programs are opposed to collecting fees for various reasons. Take time to consider your position on fees, how important the revenue stream is, and whether you have the staff capacity to issue bills to families, collect fees and find families who have not paid.
After your team creates its vision and mission, you’ll begin the process of messaging your program to potential funders in your community. As a team, one of the most critical components to funding is consistent and repetitive communication. If your team consistently uses the same words and language, your audience will not have to work as hard to realize they are hearing the same ideas and solutions over and over.
Every Hour Counts compiled a Messages Made Simple: Communications Toolkit for Expanded Learning for your use. You’ll need to download this document. This is a high-quality, thorough resource to use in marketing your ELO program.
Many questions must be asked and considerations made when a community decides to start a new ELO program. OPEL receives many requests from individuals who want to start their own program, so below are our recommendations to follow when exploring the idea.
6. Research quality expanded learning opportunities: There are numerous national programs with wonderful, high-quality resources. While this list is not exhaustive, it is a great start to understanding high-quality programs.
High quality expanded learning, afterschool and summer programs incorporate the following elements:
“While you may want to start a program immediately, some advance planning is necessary to help build a solid foundation for a quality ELO program. Full-time leadership is key to the development, quality and sustainability of ELO programs. And although there is no set amount of time for how long this planning process can take, anywhere from six to twelve months is typical to adequately prepare for opening the doors of a quality program. The sample timeline below gives you an idea of what needs to happen in this planning timeframe.”
Throughout your entire planning and implementation phase, you should make connections with potential community partners, businesses and family members for potential funding and support needs.
One of the most important things you can do is begin developing a planning committee champions who will advocate to others about the prospect of starting an ELO program in your community. Your planning committee will assist you by bringing knowledge, experience and a variety of perspectives to the planning process. Having a committee will also create buy-in from key stakeholders. Participating groups will have a greater interest in the program's success and will be important allies in expanding access to resources necessary in delivering services within the program. The size of your program will influence how many planning committee members you will need. Potential committee members may include teachers, school administrators, parents, local government representatives, park and recreation officials, church leaders or youth group representatives. Once you select and invite committee members to participate, you can schedule your first meeting. Suggested community sectors to explore in recruiting planning committee participants include the following:
EDUCATION
School district, local college or university (university offices or academic departments—Education, Math, Science, IT, Arts)
CITY GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SERVICES
Mayor’s office/city council; police department; parks and recreation office; library; health/human services department; public power companies
COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATIONS
Faith-based groups (churches, church council, faith-based organizations); Nonprofit organizations (museums, YMCA, artistic/science organizations)
BUSINESSES
Chambers of commerce; industries in your community; local businesses; local banks; hospital . During your planning and research, you may find that a program you are interested in starting already exists within your community. If that’s the case, consideration needs to be made on if you can partner with that organization to build its capacity to meet the community’s needs. The keys to building strong partnerships are open conversation and a focus on the needs of your community’s youth. Showing how collaboration both allows more children to be served across the community and expands the impact of existing organizations often helps transition potential adversaries into allies.
To build a strong, successful and sustainable ELO program, you must identify community needs and create a quality program that will respond to those needs. When considering a needs assessment, remember: you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Take time to review any recent needs assessments completed in your community and/or school. This review process will also help you identify like-minded people in your community interested in similar youth development issues. A needs assessment for programming should seek information on the following items:
Taking time to complete a needs assessment (parents, students) and analyzing the results of previous assessments will move you in the right direction and prepare you for the next step of building a vision.
Below are some brainstorming topics the planning committee can discuss related to starting an ELO program.
(Adapted from SEDL, Building and Managing Quality Afterschool Programs)
Based on the needs assessment results, your planning committee can collaborate to build a vision for your program. Building a vision will help keep the group focused on crafting a program to meet your community’s identified needs.
While you will continue to make adjustments as your program evolves, having a baseline established will help build a strong foundation for your program. As you are building this vision, the following questions should be considered:
With the heightened state of accountability, transparency and goals for supporting youth in their development and learning, programs need to establish outcomes, goals and evaluation models for implementation. It is important to note that outcomes are not the same as program goals.
Here is an example of how a vision, goal, action step and outcome fit together:
*Adapted from Beyond School Bells, Starting a Program Toolkit
As you review the results from your needs assessment and begin considering programming options, keep in mind different types of activities that would be most useful to those you seek to serve. You don’t need to focus on just one activity, as quality programs provide a variety of activities meeting the needs and interests of diverse student populations. At the same time, while it is valuable to incorporate various activities into your programming, it is equally important to identify your program’s primary goals and remain focused on these goals while exploring programming options. Having this focal point will help you in developing effective programming and securing finances. The following list can help you determine the key areas you want to focus on:
*Adapted from Beyond School Bells, Starting a Program Toolkit
While we understand that available space can be difficult to access during hours due to various teacher meetings and other events, it is important that space and location for programming are thoughtfully planned out and school building resources/space be made use of.
Establishing a strong, clearly identifiable organizational structure at the beginning will help clarify program responsibilities.
Whatever type of program you are planning, the strongest asset you will have is your staff. Generally speaking, quality staff show the following characteristics:
In general, try to keep as low a participant-to-staff ratio as you can to help develop relationships and provide personal attention to your participants.
Identifying and securing resources is one of the primary tasks of the advisory board and program leaders. While this can be a source of stress, it is worthwhile to work with your community to explore its ability and willingness to contribute to the success of your program and to help assist with securing funding.
Grants are the most common type of funding support for ELO programming. In Oklahoma, the largest grantor for ELO programming is the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Center program. Local youth bureaus, departments of human services, and city governments are other public funding sources.
Donations and Fundraising are other funding sources for an ELO program. However, before taking this on, it is important to think carefully about whether your organization has the capacity to support an individual giving campaign.
Participant Fees can be collected from individuals entering into the program. Many programs are opposed to collecting fees for various reasons. Take time to consider your position on fees, how important the revenue stream is, and whether you have the staff capacity to issue bills to families, collect fees and find families who have not paid.
After your team creates its vision and mission, you’ll begin the process of messaging your program to potential funders in your community. As a team, one of the most critical components to funding is consistent and repetitive communication. If your team consistently uses the same words and language, your audience will not have to work as hard to realize they are hearing the same ideas and solutions over and over.
Every Hour Counts compiled a Messages Made Simple: Communications Toolkit for Expanded Learning for your use. You’ll need to download this document. This is a high-quality, thorough resource to use in marketing your ELO program.