Afterschool News December 2010
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 Dallas AfterSchool Network has a new home in the Meadows Foundation's Wilson Historic District!
Please change your records to 2902 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204.
Our phone number remains the same: 214-306-8400.
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| From Gangs and Arrests to Afterschool and Good Grades | | |
Jasmine was just 12 and in the the 6th grade when she started to disengage from  school. Nothing in the classroom captivated her attention. She had no clubs, sports or activities to pursue afterschool. "I had nothing to do afterschool so I was bored," she says. In search of excitement, she started hanging out with the wrong crowd and ultimately was arrested three times before the age of 15.
Fortunately for Jasmine, she was referred to an afterschool program that paired her with a mentor who encouraged her to change her group of friends. She was also given the tutoring she needed to get back on track academically and the enrichment activities she needed to discover her passion.
Today, Jasmine is on pace to graduate with her peers and is enjoying competing regionally in cheerleading competitions. Neither would have been possible had she not attended a quality afterschool program.
Teens who do not participate in afterschool programs are nearly three times more likely to skip school or use drugs. (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids). Participation in various structured out-of-school time activities has been shown to have the greatest impact and most positive effect on those students groups who are most at risk. (National Institute of Out of School Time). In Dallas County alone, there are more than 100,000 children unsupervised each day afterschool. DASN exists to give more kids like Jasmine an opportunity to have safe, enriching afterschool time.
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DASN Begins Membership Tiering in 2011
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Dallas AfterSchool Network is working hard to ensure every child has access to quality afterschool experiences. In order to serve as many children as possible, community resources - financial, human and in-kind - must be invested wisely. Likewise, the resources and efforts of Dallas AfterSchool Network are best spent with those agencies that continually pursue quality improvement for the benefit of the children they serve.
Starting January 1, DASN will direct the resources it provides to local afterschool programs based on the level of membership each agency has attained. Multiple levels of memberships are available, with the criteria for each level revolving around the afterschool provider committing to the implementation of DASN's Afterschool Quality Advancement program and being willing to submit specific stewardship documents for DASN's review.
DASN members have been given 90 days to achieve these membership levels prior to the public announcement on January 1. The criteria for achieving higher membership status was designed specifically to ensure that every agency, no matter their size or financial resources, could attain it with reasonable effort. These membership levels will be reviewed and updated annually based on each agency's commitment to quality and efforts throughout the year to achieve higher quality.
We believe this is a critical step in helping funders and parents to research local afterschool programs. Over time, our membership levels will continue to expand with more rigorous criteria and more rewarding benefits for those agencies at the highest tiers. Ultimately, we hope to use in-kind and financial resources from the community to serve as incentives for afterschool programs to invest the time and effort to achieve higher levels of quality.
All of these changes are designed to ultimately give all children across our community equal access to high quality afterschool programs.
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DASN Selected by NASA to Deliver Afterschool Universe Curriculum
| |  Terri Barnes, DASN Director of Program Quality, was one of 23 people in the country recently trained to deliver NASA's Afterschool Universe curriculum. Afterschool Universe is an out-of-school-time astronomy program targeted at middle school students. It explores astronomy concepts through engaging hands-on activities and takes participants on a journey through the Universe beyond the solar system.
Middle school students are fascinated by the cosmos and topics such as star birth, star death, and black holes. But they rarely have an opportunity to explore that interest as the middle school curriculum does not typically address these topics. Afterschool Universe was developed to fill this niche as the middle school years are a critical time in the development of attitudes about science and career options, especially in girls. By offering astronomy programming in out-of-school-time, where schedules are less constrained, we can engage students in science and keep them interested.
There is a tremendous potential for teaching science and astronomy in the afterschool setting. Young people spend a large percentage of their time out of school and many of them do so in unstructured and unsupervised ways. Afterschool programs often reach those who most need additional help and can be offered in a variety of settings where the students go when the school day is over.
Terri will be training select, local afterschool providers to deliver this curriculum during the school-year or summer semesters. In addition, Dallas AfterSchool Network strives to provide each afterschool program with the materials and supplies needed to deliver Afterschool Universe. It will cost $1,000 for one afterschool site to deliver 12 weeks of this important curriculum to 20 students. Many of the required materials, such as solar charts, speakers and audio cables, hotplates, telescope kits, ultraviolet lamps, and balances and scales can be re-used with future groups of students, thus drastically reducing the cost to serve additional students in future sessions.
If you wish to help DASN bring these enriching lessons to local students, please donate online or contact Tanya McDonald.
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900 DASN Students Attend The Nutcracker
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|  Nine hundred DASN students had the experience of a lifetime Thanksgiving weekend when they were treated to a free performance of The Nutcracker at the Winspear Opera House. The children, ranging in age from Kindergarten through 12th grade, were mesmerized by the grandeur of the Winspear Opera House and its beautiful chandelier even before the performance began. When the lights went down and the curtain went up, the auditorium was filled with "ooohs" and "ahhhhs" at the sight of the beautiful costumes and set. Snowflakes fell from the ceiling at intermission, creating squeals and laughter across the audience.
This experience was made possible by the board of directors and donors of the Texas Ballet. Through their generosity, DASN students were exposed to a venue, a performance and careers that most had never experienced before. For some, this was literally a life-altering afternoon.
DASN and its participating agencies are forever grateful to the Texas Ballet for igniting our students' imagination and dreams. No doubt at least one of these 900 students will one day be on stage performing for a similar audience.
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Help DASN Create Quality Afterschool for More Students
| | Please consider a year-end tax-deductible investment in Dallas AfterSchool Network. We are the only agency in North Texas focused on improving the quality and availability of afterschool programs. Your support is critical to help us reach the 100,000 students who are unsupervised each afternoon in Dallas County.
- $100 provides three science kits
- $500 sends 35 students to a museum
- $1,000 buys web-based math curriculum for 28 students
Together, we will keep more kids safe afterschool and on the path to graduation. Donate online or call Tanya McDonald, Executive Director, to discuss giving opportunities.
Want to see your investment in action? Contact us to arrange a personal tour of afterschool or join us February 12, 2011 for our next Play to Learn Expo: Developing Afterschool Professionals.
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Dallas AfterSchool Network is a 501(c)(3) organization comprised of 60 afterschool providers operating more than 350 afterschool sites and serving nearly 30,000 students in Dallas, Tarrant, Rockwall, and Collin Counties.
www.dasn.org
214-306-8400
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