Energizing Afterschool Partnership

Energizing Afterschool: Partnership for Afterschool Quality

Energizing Afterschool is a partnership between NJSACC, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability, and 3 afterschool programs in Salem and Gloucester County Areas, the Woodbury Child Development Corporation in Woodbury, the YMCA of Salem County in Carney's Point and the John B. Campbell Center in Salem.

The Energizing Afterschool Partnership is a team approach to improving afterschool program quality. Each afterschool program has assembled a team of staff, program family members and community members to conduct a self-study of their programs using the After-School Quality (ASQ) tool developed by the National Institute on Out of School Time (NIOST).

NJSACC facilitates the partnership to help the afterschool programs creates a common vision for their program and a road map for how to achieve that vision.

ASQ is a five-step self-assessment process that helps to examine the quality of a program and then make changes that will lead to better practices and more positive youth outcomes.

The cornerstone of ASQ is a team approach. ASQ relies on the ideas and energy of program stakeholders which include the program staff, families, children, youth, program directors, boards of directors, and hosts. All involved are invested, have a voice, and can help shape the solutions because ASQ includes everyone in program improvement.

ASQ is based on the belief that the most successful program improvements happen when key stakeholders are involved in a slow, gradual change approach which will be more sustainable. The ASQ process focuses on how one uses an instrument, who is involved in using it, and, most importantly, what is learned from the information gathered which leads to developing strategies for program improvement.

In addition to using the ASQ tool, NJSACC staff provides support to individual sites to develop Program Improvement Plans based on the ASQ self-assessment.

NJSACC will support the programs to carry out the Program Improvement Plans via training on a variety of topics to compliment the Program Improvement Plans and a collection of resources that are available to NJSACC such as the 21st Century Afterschool Science Project (21st CASP), the Outdoors in the Garden State Activity kit, and the National Project for Afterschool Science (NPASS) STEM Curriculums.

PSEG is generously providing mini grants to support of the Program Improvement Plan.

Pictured Below:

• Dennis Groomes, Support Specialist, NJSACC
• Michael Bower, Director of Development, United Way of Salem County
• Tim Dolan, Executive Director, United Way of Salem County
• Sarah Cruz, Director of Expanded Learning, NJSACC
• Charles Washington Jr., Executive Director, John B. Campbell Center
• Phyllis Folk, Executive Director, Woodbury Community Development Corporation
• Sheila Rostiac, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, PSEG
• Shauwea Hamilton, Manager, Community Affairs, PSEG
• Diane Genco, Executive Director, NJSACC
• Robert Butler, Executive Director, YMCA of Salem County
• Bill Levis, President, PSEG Power