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I’m working at the state level—what can I do to tap ARRA resources?

1. Identify if your Governor has appointed a recovery czar or task force to plan for use of the funding.  If so contact them on behalf of afterschool as a smart investment.  Develop a letter such as the one the Georgia Network developed for their Governor.

2.  Meet with your Child Care Development agency and offer to work together on building program quality in your state through professional development and training programs. 
 
3.  Meet with your state workforce agency.  Offer to co-host a teleconference on use of workforce funding in summer and afterschool programs.  For a model of such a teleconference go to: http://www.afterschoolnetwork.org/node/7274

4.  Find out which school districts are receiving the largest share of the additional Title I education dollars.  Work with afterschool providers in those districts on making the case to their local district’s Title I coordinators and superintendents that investing in afterschool matches the desires of the new administration in Washington.  Give examples of how afterschool and summer programs can help close the achievement gap.

5.  Help document the success of recovery dollars going to afterschool.  Push your state to include different measures of student success in statewide data collection efforts and/or join up with other states to collect the data that will be needed to show investing in afterschool works.