The Indiana Afterschool Network (IAN) released a new report last week, “The Power of Afterschool in Indiana”, that includes data regarding out-of-school time (OST) programs in Indiana. The report includes information for a variety of stakeholders, including policymakers and legislators on the demand and impact of Indiana’s OST programs.
IAN is a nonprofit organization that connects advocates, partners and youth workers in order to foster and support afterschool and summer learning. In “The Power of Afterschool in Indiana”, IAN brings together statistics and information form a variety of sources including Afterschool Alliance, Indiana Out-of-School Time Program Database, and Kids Count Data, as well as evidence about the significance of afterschool programs from scholarly research. The report shows how afterschool programs promote and support safety, health, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education. The report also discusses issues related to funding.
The release of the report coincides with a month-long campaign, Lights on Afterschool, developed by the Afterschool Alliance—a non-profit public awareness and advocacy organization—to celebrate and bring awareness to the crucial role of out-of-school programs in the lives of youth. The campaign is nationwide with locally held and community events across the country. On October 23rd, Lights on Afterschool organized the 15th Annual Rally for Afterschool Programs, a national rally involving more than 8,000 local events. In Indiana, champions and supporters have put on more than 60 events.
Transform Consulting Group is dedicated to helping organizations like IAN. Transform Consulting Group worked with IAN to increase and diversify their sources of funding from being dependent on just one primary source of funding to pooling together several multi-year funding sources. Transform Consulting Group applauds the work that IAN is doing to raise the capacity of OST programs in Indiana.
