Public and Private Partners Team Up to Study After-School Options

Michigan After-School Initiative (MASI) Report Answers Questions, Leads Change

by Judith Brown Clarke, Community Support Division, Family Independence Agency; Lindy Buch, Office of Early Childhood Education and Family Services, Michigan Department of Education; K.P. Pelleran, Director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Michigan; Kathi Pioszak, Child Development and Care, Family Independence Agency

A growing body of evidence suggests that youth are most at risk for engaging in harmful behaviors during after-school hours. The research also suggets that many youth are also at risk of academic failure. In fact, during the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., the occurrence of juvenile crime triples. Being unsupervised after school doubles the risk that eighth-graders will smoke, drink alcohol, or use drugs (Newman et. al., 2003). Yet evidence also suggests that after-school programs can empower youth to overcome challenges, develop resilience, and learn lifelong skills. These programs can also produce excellent economic returns by reducing dollars spent on school failure, crime, and health care costs.

The Michigan After-School Initiative (MASI) 2003 Report addresses these and other after-school issues. MASI, a task force formed in response to House Resolution No. 26 (H.R. 26), is co-chaired by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and the Family Independence Agency (FIA). In 2003, MASI developed a broad coalition of more than 70 individuals representing 40 organizations committed to after-school issues. The task force was charged to assess after-school services in Michigan and develop a plan to ensure quality after-school programs for every school-age child in the state.

MASI submitted its report to the Governor and state legislature in December 2003. The report included an action plan to finance and sustain quality after-school programs for all children and focused on several specific goals:

• Reinforce and extend existing public support for after-school programs.
• Develop state structures and policies supporting quality after-school programming.
• Find ways to raise and sustain funding for existing after-school programs.
• Ensure all Michigan school-age children have access to a variety of quality after-school programs that enhance physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development.
• Relieve after-school childcare burdens of working parents and caregivers.

In order to accomplish these goals, MASI recommended the MDE and FIA continue to fund MASI long enough to oversee the implementation plan and fund a position to manage the effort. At present, both organizations’ budgets for 2004-05 include the proposed funding, with a further recommendation that MASI be renamed the “Michigan After-School Partnership.” The Partnership will create a statewide network to develop and sustain quality after-school programs across Michigan. House and Senate concurrent resolutions with the same purpose are being introduced.

Read the final report for MASI at www.michigan.gov/documents/21st_CCLC_MASI_Report_80337_7.pdf.

For more information, contact: Judith Brown Clarke, Community Support Division, Family Independence Agency, (517) 335-2364, brownj@michigan.gov; Lindy Buch, Office of Early Childhood Education and Family Services, Michigan Department of Education, (517) 373-8483, BuchL@michigan.gov; K. P. Pelleran, Director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Michigan, (517) 371-3565, kppelleran@fightcrime.org; Kathi Pioszak, Child Development and Care, Family Independence Agency (517) 335-6186, pioszakk@michigan.gov; or Representative Doug Hart, (R) Rockford, (888) 414-DOUG (3684), dist073@house.mi.gov.

TOP of the Page