Korynn M. Schooley joins the GAIC staff as our first Policy and Advocacy Manager. Korynn grew up in Newark, Delaware, has a B.A. from Duke University and a M.A. in Public Policy from Harvard University. Korynn brings tremendous depth in the policy arena, particularly at the state level. She recently relocated to Atlanta from Boston, MA, where she served as the Chief of Staff for Massachusetts Representative Alice K. Wolf, a leader on education and early childcare issues in the state. Korynn has followed the relevant policy debates up in Massachusetts and she is ready to help make some meaningful policy impacts in Georgia. Prior to her work in the state legislature, she spent several years at both the Schott Foundation for Public Education in Massachusetts and the Cosgrove Group as a Program Officer.

Lights On Afterschool is celebrated nationwide to call attention to the importance of afterschool programs for America's children, families and communities. Lights On Afterschool was launched in October 2000 with celebrations in more than 1,200 communities nationwide. The event grew in 2001 to more than 3,600 events and more than 7,500 in 2005. Last October 2006, 1 million Americans celebrated Lights On Afterschool!

Your participation helps demonstrate the importance of your work, and of afterschool programs nationwide. Help call attention to the need for afterschool resources and join us in celebrating!

Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) is in the process of compiling a comprehensive listing and description of federal and state subsidized child care programs in Georgia. The focus of this project is on the number of slots available in order to evaluate the systems capacity in comparison to the need. This listing will include programs that serve children ages 0-13 with our findings likely broken out into different age ranges, such as non-school age (0-5) and school age (5-13). Data sought includes amount of dollars expended, number of children served and the number of children in need of subsidized child care who are unable to access such care.

GBPI's goal is to complete the report in Dec/Jan and to distribute the information to all members of the General Assembly, key executive branch policy makers, advocates, and the media. The ultimate impact of the report would be improved public policy decisions to assure that subsidized child care is available to low and moderate income families.

This fall, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) is hosting a series of meetings throughout Georgia to educate the public about proposals being discussed by state legislators that would make major changes to the state's tax system. The tour is a collaboration of GBPI, AARP Georgia, Georgia Association of Educators, Georgia School Board Association, Georgia Municipal Association and Georgia Coalition United for a Responsible Budget.

The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, in partnership with the GA DECAL Bright from the Start, is developing tools to study quality in early care and afterschool programs. It is very important for licensed afterschool programs to consider participation in this exciting study to ensure that afterschool reaps the benefits of this work. Incentives are available to qualified programs.

Over fifty afterschool leaders from 12 counties (Coweta, Carroll, Heard, Troup, Meriwether, Upson, Pike, Lamar, Butts, Henry, Spaulding, and Taylor) and three regions met August 29th, 2007 for a second regional forum in Griffin, GA co-hosted by the Georgia Afterschool Investment Council and Family Connection Partnership. Forum participants identified the following issues around afterschool as predominant in their region: difficulty finding and securing facilities for programs, lack of community and parental support for afterschool and the need to increase awareness, parents not recognizing the value of afterschool programs, affordability of programs, and a need for more diversity within staffing of programs.

Afterschool leaders from western Georgia counties and South Atlanta counties recognized that an action plan is needed in order to bring about positive change for afterschool and summer learning programs in their region. Next action steps for this region include:

• Having a dialogue on afterschool on quarterly basis,
• Raising public awareness to public officials,
• Developing a regional afterschool campaign,
• Expanding the use of existing buildings and workplaces for afterschool programs,
• Using Kids Count data to build the case for afterschool,
• Creating a network and community of afterschool programs on local and regional level,
• Completing a community mapping of available programs in the region,
• Creating mentoring program where high school students mentor younger youth,
• Developing fact sheets with regional data to include dollars saved as a result of afterschool programs.

To help build support for afterschool with potential afterschool funders and local and state officials, Georgia Afterschool is searching for personal success stories about how an afterschool program has positively affected the life of a young person.