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Newsletter
August 2006
Teens Share Preferred Qualities of Afterschool Programs
Preferred Qualities

In a recent survey published by Junior Achievement Afterschool, teens shared qualities that attract them to afterschool programs. The survey was conducted by Newton Research and represents a random sample of youth ages 13 to 18. The majority of the teens say they are interested in afterschool programs that offer college scholarships (94.3%) or college credit (92.1%). A large segment of the group interviewed also said they would be interested in programs that help them perform better in school (76.8%), develop leadership skills (76.4%), teach them how to work with money and budgets (75.6%), and how to run a business (69.1%). “These results underscore the need to make the content of afterschool programs for youth more compelling in order to encourage more teens to participate,” said Dr. Darrell A. Luzzo, senior vice president of education for Junior Achievement. “We have an obligation to provide young people with personal and educational growth opportunities in the afterschool setting that they might not otherwise receive in the traditional classroom environment.” For more information about Junior Achievement afterschool initiatives, visit http://www.ja.org or the Georgia Junior Achievement office at http://georgia.ja.org/ .

GA Recreation & Park Association- Pilot Sites to Test Food/Beverage Choices

A number of local parks and recreational agencies across the state will soon be selected to participate as pilot sites offering children and adults healthy choices in concessions and vending machines. The program is being conducted as part of the strategic planning in the Georgia's Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative. The GA Recreation and Park Association recently adopted a resolution urging all their parks and recreational agencies and other organizations serving the state’s youth in recreation to strongly consider offering healthy choices alongside the traditional snack items.

The resolution and recommended food choices can be viewed at http://www.grpa.org/viewnews.php? id=157&linkid=8

Park and recreation programs in cities and counties all across the state are oftentimes used for various afterschool programs. By enacting this resolution, Georgia’s youth will have a better opportunity to eat healthy.
We Call Ourselves the Council Now, Not a Steering Committee and Other News

In July, GAIC’s leadership team met to discuss the organization’s direction and strategies in place. Several recommendations were given to the Executive Director. Here are the summary of those recommendations:

  • Role of steering committee has changed given our growth from 34 to nearly 60 partners – steering committee will now become the Council
  • Council meetings will now meet quarterly
  • Make-up of the ‘Council’ will be voluntary with roster updates every two years
  • New committees will form
Past Committees - Transition Team, Public Policy, Quality and Credentialing, Communications and Public Relations, Evaluation and Performance Accountability, Youth and Funding

New Committees -Leadership Team, Public Policy and Engagement, Quality and Professional Development, Out-of-School Time Research Study Group.

More information on these committees and how to get involved will be up on our new website later this month.

Our previously scheduled “steering committee” meeting for August 18th will be rescheduled for a later date so we can work on a longer-term Council meetings program strategy that falls nicely into line with these new recommendations. In the meantime, the Fall months include plenty of activity you will be seeing and hearing about via our ensuing website launch: Afterschool Academies in September, LightsOn! event in October, Georgia Afterschool Report release in November, and an Afterschool- Business Partnership breakfast in late November/early December with America’s Promise and Corporate Voices for Working Families. We will also be working towards creating an introductory policy agenda for the upcoming session in 2007.

Georgia Afterschool Report (GAR) Update
GA Afterschool Report

The first of three phases for this report is now complete. Thanks to a second Georgia Afterschool Task Force meeting that focused on vision, policy priorities and initial recommendations that may surface in this report— the development and data collection phase has been completed and the writing phase of the report has begun. The report’s release is still scheduled for mid-November.

GAIC Staff

Jill Riemer, Executive Director
email: jriemer@unitedwayatlanta.org
phone: 404-527-7250


Karin Hong, Coordinator
phone: 404-527-7232

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