Improving Academic Achievement and Social Development through City-Wide Out-of-School-Time Programs

Chicago, IL

The Opportunity: Coordinating and Expanding the Reach Chicago’s Out-of-School-Time Programs for the City’s Youth

In 2003, the City of Chicago established a Department of Children and Youth Services — now the Department of Family and Social Services — charged with managing a growing range of support and advocacy services for Chicago’s children and youth. The department’s new commissioner, Mary Ellen Caron, focused on developing strategies that would help ensure the welfare of all Chicago children and teens for many years ahead. Recognizing the positive impact that out-of-school-time (OST) programs have on the academic achievement and social development, Caron made finding a way to better coordinate and expand the city’s many OST programs a key priority.

Public Innovation in Action: Engaging a Variety of Stakeholders to Deliver OST Programming to Chicago’s Youth

Under Caron’s leadership, the department secured preliminary funding from the Wallace Foundation to form the Chicago Out-of-School-Time Project in 2005. Caron partnered with Maggie Daley, chair of the nonprofit organization After School Matters, to lead the project—which sought to ensure that OST offerings were available in low-income areas of Chicago where the needs were greatest.

Together, Caron and Daley were able to coordinate the wide variety of stakeholders currently involved in offering OST programs in Chicago. In addition, Caron and Daley invited the directors of other city agencies to join the OST Project steering committee, including Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Libraries, Metropolous 2020, and After School Matters. By engaging department leaders from across the city, Caron and Daley ensured that the comprehensive framework would be shaped and owned by key constituents across the city. That cross-city team, together with the support of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, lent credibility and stature to the importance of the OST Project for all of Chicago.

With the right stakeholders involved, the steering committee succeeded in organizing the myriad of issues to be addressed around five major “pillars” to be developed, piloted, refined, and implemented:

1. An information technology system that could be shared across all OST partners and providers
2. A communication plan to target and reach teens
3. A systematic way to develop and disseminate innovation “best practices” across all program providers
4. A consistent way to measure and ensure OST program quality
5. Strategies for long-term financial funding, leading to a sustainable OST programming and infrastructure system

To help ensure the ability to achieve large objectives across a few short years, Caron designated a project director to manage the day-to-day responsibilities for implementing the OST information technology system. The project director and staff were responsible for overseeing the operational aspects of the project, and several consultants were retained to assist in implementation phases.

The Results: Mobilizing Key Players and New Resources for Chicago’s Youth

As a result of the success of the OST Project’s early-stage planning, the City of Chicago was selected by the Wallace Foundation as the recipient of a three-year $8-million grant in 2006 to bring together the city’s OST services into an infrastructure system that would be sustainable in the long run. The steering committee and the extended OST Project team prepared an 80-page Strategic Plan for the Foundation in 2007, followed by a citywide plan, which was approved by the Wallace Foundation.

Chicago OST made significant progress toward accomplishing its strategic goals, including building an information technology system that linked the various OST programs and successfully implementing the Program and Participant Tracking System. In all, 499 sites were connected and over 500 staff members trained, impacting 3,796 program activities and 42,735 youth in the Chicago OST System. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley executed the communications component of the OST project in September 2008, including an interactive website that today helps youth and their families choose from thousands of OST programs. The Wallace Foundation accepted the completed strategic plan and provided the Chicago OST Project team with the full grant of $8 million to help grow and sustain Chicago’s out-of-school-time system.

The greatest reward from Chicago’s dedicated work, coupled with the Wallace Foundation’s financial support, resides in the ability of Chicago to provide value to children and their families as they select OST programs of interest to the children, year after year.

Keys to Success

• Government leaders are uniquely positioned to mobilize a variety of stakeholders. Coordinating Chicago’s wide variety of OST programs required a leader with the foresight and leadership skills to bring many different stakeholders to the table.

• Partnering across sectors provides vital opportunity to attract new resources. Caron’s work with the nonprofit sector—from her partnership with Wallace to her shared leadership of the OST Project with Daley made it possible to mobilize people and resources in a way that would not have been possible for government alone.

Conclusion

As Caron’s work in Chicago demonstrates, public innovators are uniquely positioned to bring together the reach, resources, networks, and creative approaches of all three sectors to work together in a reinforcing circle to create positive and sustainable social change. They are motivated to ensure that government and communities are investing in proven methods to accomplish their goals in the most effective ways possible. They change systems as needed to make them more efficient and effective in how they deliver results.