New Tools from Every Hour Counts: How to Communicate the Value of Expanded-Learning Systems and Intermediaries

Have you ever sat down with your schools superintendent or local funder, or even that person sitting next to you on the plane, and struggled to describe exactly what an “after-school system” is? Or “intermediary?” Or “expanded-learning?” We have, too, and frankly, we realized it was time for a change – a bold change. A rethinking of how we communicate the value of what we do, in clear and compelling language. Through a comprehensive messaging planning process, we learned a few lessons for talking about our work:

•    Focus on outcomes and impact, rather than process.
•    Use language that makes sense to external audiences.
•    Tell key audiences what’s in it for them.

What are the big changes we made? For one, we changed our name to Every Hour Counts, formerly the Collaborative for Building After-School Systems. Why the change? Across the nation, our partners and peer organizations are employing an impressive range of strategies to provide all students with additional learning opportunities. We needed a new name that captured the power of expanded learning. Plus, Every Hour Counts is sticky, aspirational, speaks to high-quality programs, and conveys urgency. Our mission remains the same: expanding learning so every student can thrive.

Instead of adopting more lay terms, we decided to embrace the words “system” and “intermediary,” but to do a better job defining them and highlighting the benefits of building systems and supporting intermediaries.

We’re bringing complex ideas in system-building, such as quality improvement and school and community partnerships, to life through storytelling.

We compiled results – academic, social, and emotional – with robust data to show how expanded-learning systems drive youth impact.

All these messaging tools are available freely on our website, and we hope you use them. Adopt the language in your own communications, use it in blogs, and share the tools with others. As Andrea Sussman of KSA-Plus Communications pointed out to participants in our recent webinar on messaging, “You have way more in common with one another than you have with the people you want to convince. You are trying to win hearts and change minds. And you do that by banding together and using the power of your collective voice.”

The more voices there are in the field speaking the same language, the farther we’ll all go to make every hour count.

To learn more, watch to our recent webinar, “Steal this Message: Explaining the Value of Expanded-Learning Systems and Intermediaries.”

Let us know what you think and please stay in touch.

Keeping the Momentum Going in Washington

CBASS is not letting the stalled reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) keep us from pressing our policy priorities in DC. Two weeks ago, we met with local delegates and staff from the Senate and House education authorization and appropriations committees to discuss our policy recommendations. As much as policy change in DC may be gridlocked, we left the Hill inspired by staffers’ hunger to understand from education leaders what works and what doesn’t, and how our on-the-ground work can inform legislation.

Here’s what we discussed:

Maintain the stand-alone 21st Century Community Learning Center program.
We continue to be dismayed by House Education leaders’ partisan approach to reauthorization and insistence on block granting discretionary education funds, such as the 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) program. We continue to fight for a stand-alone funding stream to ensure these critical resources are available to communities in need. President Obama’s proposed $100 million increase to the 21st CCLC is a promising step in the right direction to ensure that more kids from high-need communities have opportunities to thrive and learn beyond the traditional school day.

Ensure strong partnerships between schools and community partners are required for all 21st CCLC programs.
In a scan of just our CBASS communities, we learned that partnerships are often prioritized in state policy, but not required. We believe all communities, both urban and rural, have the ability to transform learning experiences by leveraging the combined power of school and community partnerships. We shared with staff our stories of how intermediary organizations like the Nashville After Zone Alliance brings community partners like the YMCA and Girls, Inc. into the schools to deliver inspiring programming. Programs like this have doubled the participation rate in after-school and broken new ground with the school district in creating mechanisms for sharing information around school attendance and other academic outcomes.

What Does an OST Intermediary Do?

Across the country, intermediary organizations are playing pivotal roles in expanding the availability of high-quality expanded learning opportunities to help kids succeed. A new report from the Collaborative for Building After-School Systems (CBASS), draws on findings from the first national survey of non-profit Out-of-School Time (OST) intermediaries to highlight their leading characteristics, assess their impact on children and systems, and illuminate pressing issues for the field.

Intermediaries are nonprofit organizations that support whole community-wide or state-wide OST systems. An intermediary serves as the nucleus and guiding coordinator within each community’s multifaceted network of government, schools, front-line practitioners, foundations and others. From the more than 200 intermediaries that responded to the survey, CBASS learned that even in a recessionary economy, intermediary organizations helped increase the number of kids in their communities who were able to benefit from expanded learning opportunities.

We also found that:

• Intermediaries needed private interests, such as foundations, to invest in building after-school systems before they were able to raise significant public funds.

• Intermediaries play important roles in increasing funding and developing quality standards and tools.

• They identify as their most pressing priority the need to expand access to more under-served kids.

• Some are missing opportunities to do the hard, long-term work of changing policy and building data systems, but they seek ways to share knowledge and become more effective.

You can read more findings from the survey, learn about ways to spread the progress—and discover what intermediaries do to strengthen program quality and lead kids to better outcomes—in Making the Connections: A Report on the First National Survey of Out-of-School Time Intermediary Organizations, produced with support from The Wallace Foundation. We plan to use these findings as a baseline for future comparisons, so please let us know what you think.

This report is part of CBASS’s efforts, through policy, practice, and communications, to help cities and regions better coordinate approaches to increase the scale, quality, and accountability of expanded learning opportunities, particularly by leveraging the combined power of community organizations and schools.

This post originally appeared in the ExpandED Exchange.