Mentoring is a critical element in every child's social, emotional and cognitive development. It builds a sense of industry and competency, boosts academic performance and broadens horizons. Along with parents, mentors help young people realize their potential by providing them with support, advice, encouragement and friendship. Afterschool programs, with their history of supporting families and communities, are an ideal platform for successful mentoring programs.

Afterschool provides older youth with critical academic supports including credit attainment and recovery opportunities. Many educators are turning to afterschool programs to reach students who fail one or more courses, become disengaged, or want alternatives to the traditional path to graduation.

Over one million students who enter ninth grade each year fail to graduate with their peers four years later because they drop out of school. Seven thousand students drop out of school every day, and each year roughly 1.2 million students fail to graduate from high school. More than half of these students are from minority groups. Afterschool programs are a proven way to address the issues and risk factors that lead to dropout and provide a path to graduation and beyond.

Not only are middle and high school-aged youth difficult to engage in afterschool activities, but they are more likely to have unique demands on their time in the hours afterschool. This issue brief highlights the challenges providers face in serving older youth and the innovative strategies that programs have used to recruit and retain older youth in afterschool.

Equipping today's youth with the skills necessary to compete in the 21st Century workforce is a top priority of our nation's schools, communities, policy makers and businesses. This issue brief examines how afterschool provides kids with the opportunity to develop skills to help them succeed in an increasingly competitive labor market.

Children have a wonderful curiosity about nature and the environment, which, if encouraged through afterschool activities can have a profound impact on their health and well-being. Children also take readily to concepts of conservation which will make them excellent stewards of the future of our environment. This issue brief explores the relationship between children's health, academic enrichment and community awareness through developing a relationship with the wonders of their natural environment.

This issue brief highlights the effectiveness of afterschool programming in offering children with special needs an opportunity to develop alongside their non-disabled peers. The benefits of afterschool for kids with special needs include; improved performance on standardized tests, mastery of individualized education goals, higher grades, improved behavior and increased motivation to learn.

Studies show that summer vacation can be a time of stagnation or decline for our children's development. Fortunately, involvement in a variety of quality summer programs can help children stay on course. This brief explores the various ways in which coordinated summer academic, enrichment and recreational activities can benefit all children.

This brief explores the various ways afterschool programs create linkages between school and home for students and parents. It is one in a series of Issue Briefs sponsored by the MetLife Foundation that addresses the benefits afterschool programs provide to children, families and communities.

This brief explores the various ways afterschool programs support student achievement. It is one in a series of Issue Briefs sponsored by the MetLife Foundation that addresses the benefits afterschool programs provide to children, families and communities.

This brief addresses the vital role afterschool programs play in connecting school and community resources. It is one in a series of Issue Briefs sponsored by the MetLife Foundation that addresses the benefits afterschool programs provide to children, families and communities.

Recent educational reform strategies have included ideas on extending the school day. However, increased classroom time alone may not be enough to improve academic outcomes without proper attention to how that time gets used. This brief examines the ways in which a quality afterschool program model could be used to inform the implementation of a quality extended day initiative.

This brief, examines the current teacher shortage facing our schools, the impact this shortage is having on our rapidly changing educational system, and ways afterschool programs can help meet the need for recruiting and retaining new teachers. It is one in a series of Issue Briefs sponsored by the MetLife Foundation that addresses the benefits afterschool programs provide to children, families and communities.

In order to better compete with their international peers in the 21st century, American students will need to be better prepared to work in the growing fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. This brief explains the ways in which afterschool can engage kids in these fields, collectively known as STEM.

This brief discusses the unique opportunities afterschool programs can offer students to prepare them for the workforce, including developing interpersonal, thinking, and leadership skills. It also cites several examples of successful programs focusing on such skills.

This brief explains how afterschool programs can play a major role in combating childhood obesity by offering healthy snacks and encouraging physical activity - and doing so in a safe and educational environment.

With a job market that requires nearly all workers to have a high school diploma, America faces a huge challenge with the dropout crisis. This brief examines the potential role high school afterschool could play in decreasing dropout rates, tackling the achievement gap, and keeping kids on track towards successful futures.

This brief considers the social cost of not providing afterschool programs and the high returns on such investments. It is well worth it for businesses and government alike to fund afterschool activities. This brief presents several of the benefits of investing in afterschool programs.

Not only do arts activities help draw students to afterschool programs, but, as this brief explains, afterschool programs with an arts component can be used as an outlet for self expression, a means to uniting community partners, and a tool for academic and skills development.

Although much of the funding and programming for afterschool targets younger children, there are myriad advantages for older youth participation in afterschool. This brief examines the growing need for afterschool programming for teens.

This brief explores how afterschool programs can help youth prepare for the workforce by offering exposure to various career fields and academic areas, which may be missed in the regular school day curriculum.

This brief explores how, by offering a safe and stable environment for youth and opportunities for school and community partnerships, afterschool programs can be a valuable resource that helps strengthen our communities.

This brief describes how afterschool programs have an opportunity to help disadvantaged youth catch up with their peers when the regular school day may not provide enough time or resources to address the various economic, language, or cultural barriers some students face.

This brief examines the ways in which working parents, their children, and employers can all benefit from quality afterschool programs.

This brief discusses the relatively new "youth development" movement, and explores the ways in which this movement can utilize afterschool programs as a solution to the increasing number of challenges our unsupervised youth are facing today.

This issue brief highlights how afterschool can be a strategic part of a successful school improvement plan, as recognized by principals and education organizations throughout the country.

This brief explains how a safe environment, positive role models, decision making skills, and health education offered by afterschool programs can aid in teenage pregnancy prevention.

This issue brief explores how afterschool programs can give youth the opportunity to volunteer, and in doing so, participants can learn applicable life skills, form a bond with community organizations, and discover the value of community service.

Through youth-designed and youth-implemented service projects, youth not only are able to apply their academic skills to the real world, but also donate their services to their neighborhoods. This brief explains how afterschool programs offering service-learning projects can benefit both youth and their communities.

This brief describes how, through offering healthy snacks and time for physical activity, including nutrition or health in the curriculum, and building self-esteem, afterschool programs can encourage and enforce healthy lifestyles.

This brief illustrates several benefits of afterschool programs, such as improved literacy skills, enjoyment of recreational reading, and building positive relationships with adults, which reading activities in afterschool can offer to participants.

In communities where infrastructure and resources are limited, afterschool programs may offer the only opportunity for academic, recreational, and creative enrichment. This brief explores how afterschool programs in several rural communities are successfully serving their children, families and communities with vital resources.

This brief describes the role higher education institutions can play when they partner with afterschool programs. College students can offer their services as mentors, tutors, or youth workers, and faculty can provide evaluation assistance or curriculum development assistance - all of which can be beneficial to college students and higher education institutions in return.

Students with special needs may not always receive the resources they need to reach their full potential during the school day, but afterschool programs can offer additional activities more tailored to the individual needs of children. Our first issue brief examines the valuable role afterschool programs can play in the life of a child with special needs.

As both youth victimization and youth violence are increasing, this brief examines the ways in which afterschool can help decrease youth crime, and increase youth safety, making communities as a whole safer.

Respectfulness, positive behavior, self-confidence, and an interest in school are just a few traits kids can develop through participation in afterschool programs. Check out this issue brief to learn more about ways afterschool can help build character.