Dallas Afterschool was recently invited to join the Every Hour Counts National Learning Community, a group comprised of expanded-learning system-builders from 13 cities and regions from around the country. This National Learning Community will offer Dallas Afterschool an opportunity to share their work with peers in other cities, improve practices, and design solutions for shared challenges facing the field.
“It is an honor for Dallas Afterschool to be selected as a founding member of the National Learning Community,” said Christina Hanger, CEO of Dallas Afterschool. “This is great recognition for the work Dallas is doing as a community to better afterschool programs. We look forward to collaborating, learning and sharing industry experience with our 12 peer organizations, and see this as an opportunity for our partners to also learn.
Every Hour Counts is a leading voice in promoting the work of building expanded-learning systems, which replace a patchwork of fragmented service providers in a city or county with a cohesive team that engages students in high-quality learning and enrichment through after-school and summer programs, in addition to other initiatives.
“We’re delighted to welcome 13 new cities and counties into our learning community,” said Jessica Donner, the executive director of Every Hour Counts. “For the past 10 years, Every Hour Counts has cross-fertilized innovations in cities around the country and informed federal policy by learning from on-the-ground practitioners. This expansion will expand our circle of cities around the country from 10 to 23 who are learning from each other, advancing the field, and informing the design of new expanded-learning systems around the country.”
Every Hour Counts selected the communities to serve as founding members of the National Learning Community based on local accomplishments to improve the quality of expanded-learning opportunities, geographic diversity, and a variety of governance structures.
The other members of the Every Hour Counts National Learning Community include:
- Allegheny County, PA – Allegheny Partners for Out-of-School Time
- Denver, CO – Denver Afterschool Alliance
- Detroit, MI – The Skillman Foundation
- Fresno, CA – California Teaching Fellows Foundation
- Greenville, SC – BOOST Greenville
- Harris County, TX – The Center for Afterschool, Summer and Expanded Learning for Kids, Harris County Department of Education
- King County, WA – Youth Development Executives of King County
- Newark, NJ – Newark Thrives!
- Richmond, VA – NextUp RVA
- Rochester, NY – Greater Rochester After-School Alliance
- San Francisco, CA – San Francisco Expanded Learning Collaborative, San Francisco Department of Children, Youth, & Their Families
- Saint Paul, MN – Sprockets
As a member of the Every Hour Counts National Learning Community, Dallas Afterschool is part of a circle of communities that collectively support partnerships with more than 3,500 schools, districts, and community-based organizations that provide quality expanded-learning programming and lead initiatives that reach over 500,000 students.
Every Hour Counts is grateful for the generous support of The Wallace Foundation for its investment to help create this National Learning Community.