DC4K in After School Programs, Part Two

Thinking about ways to get DC4K out into your community? This article will give you some suggestions on how to get started.
by Linda Ranson Jacobs children after school are raising Many themselves without adult supervision; Your action plan 1. Research legal issues. 2. Research local organizations that might house after school programs. Some of these organizations will run after school programs on school grounds; others will not. 3. Research national organizations. 4. Look into denominational resources. 5. Explore established Bible Clubs. 6. Explore private schools. Types of organization that currently run after school programs Ideas and organizations to collaborate with an after school program Other resources Action Plan 1. Start by researching the legalities of using a faith-based program on or in the public schools in your area. There are several articles on the following websites. Christian Legal Society / Center for Law and Religious Freedom, 703-642-1070: http://www.clsnet.org/clrfPages/index.phpx American Center for Law & Justice: www.aclj.org The consensus seems to be that if a school district allows other organizations to use or display promotional materials, then

they go home alone after school. This is especially true of children from divorced homes. The custodial single parent has to work in order to provide for the children. Many of these single parents cant afford supervised after school care so the children are left on their own to fend for themselves. Many children spend hours at home alone or raising their younger siblings. What if you made it possible to give these children usable skills and provide just one afternoon a week where they would be and feel safe, where they could connect with other children who are experiencing the divorce of their parents? What if you provided a place where these children had an opportunity to develop interpersonal skills and relationship building skills? Other children from divorced situations do attend organized after school programs. These children also need help processing and healing from the divorce of the parents. After school programs are a ready-made venue for DC4K groups. Part One talked about using the public schools to house your church-sponsored DC4K. Part Two will discuss

they have to let religious groups have access to the school property after school hours as well. From the Christian Legal Society Equal Access To Public Elementary Schools article, Whether a religious ministry has a legally enforceable right to meet after hours in a public elementary school usually hinges on whether other secular community-oriented groups such as Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, 4-H, Campfire Girls, and YMCA meet after-hours on campus. If so, the First Amendment guarantees religious ministries an equal right to meet. There was a Supreme Court ruling in 2001 in the case of Good News Club v. Milford Central School that Good News Clubs can meet in public schools after school hours on the same terms as other community groups. (Good News Clubs are sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship and are the same organization that provides the postcard in the DC4K workbooks.) Everything I have read involving the use of public school grounds goes back to this Supreme Court ruling. Check with your individual school system to see what organizations, clubs, etc., they allow to use school property. You will know if you are able to move forward on school property or if you will have to house DC4K off-site. 2. Research the possibility of using local groups such as the 4-H clubs, YMCA/YWCA, Salvation Army, etc., and visit with them about the best way to approach the development of putting DC4K in out-of-school-time programs either in public schools or off-site.

3. Research working with a national group that has an interest in children after school and has a concern for the well-being of children after school. One such organization is the Elementary Principals Organization. Make contact through a personal connection from someone in your area. 4. Approach a denomination that already has an after school type program up and running. Locate a local program and work closely with that one group as a pilot program documenting observable results of improvement. Get this group to agree to be a pilot whose documentations and assessments would be used nationally to gain attention to the benefits in housing a DC4K in an after school program. Or if your denomination has contacts on a national level, go through your denominational resources and interview them about the best plan. If your own church has an after school program up and running, approach that director or the board of directors and start with the program in your church. 5. Approach already organized Bible clubs about partnering with them. Two clubs that I know of are Child Evangelism Fellowship Good News Clubs and Fun with Faith Clubs, Inc. Local municipalities also may have clubs or mentoring programs already in place and particular to your city. Approach private schools in your area to see about the possibilities of housing a DC4K group on their school property after school. Look into using a commercial child care agency.

Types of Organizations That Currently Run After School Programs Public schools Churches Private schools, which are mostly faithbased Child cares: nonprofit or commercial programs National or local organizations Ideas to Strategize DC4Ks Collaboration with and in After School Programs Public school run out-of-school-time programs: Contact the National Association of Elementary School Principals to see if they might have an interest in running DC4K in the after school programs developed and sponsored by the public schools. Start by connecting at a local level with a principal who is an active member of NAESP. Interview and question this representative to assess what he or she thinks would be an appropriate avenue to follow. Submit a proposal to speak at one of their national conventions, or even start by speaking at a statewide convention. Be sure you are adept at speaking their lingo. Emphasize the fact that DC4K will improve students ability to focus during the day as well as the fact that test scores will only go up when kids work through all of their emotions. There is a division of the No Child Left Behind act that allocates funding for after school programs in the public school. It is called Twenty First Century Schools, and they will fund as much as one million dollars to local school districts for after school programs. The emphasis on this is to assure children quality education, and that is done by improving test scores and bringing children

up to a national standard. Find out if your local school is using these funds. YWCA and YMCA after school programs: Many Ys are now being funded by the Twenty First Century grant monies also. They are collaborating with and in the public school arena. There are still many Ys that house after school programs in Y facilities. In some cases, housing DC4K at their facilities may be a viable option. These organizations are Christian oriented in their basic belief system, and it might be a good idea to explore how DC4K fits with their philosophy. Again, developing a relationship with a local group would come first, and then pursue collaborating with the local group to broach the national organization. One benefit for the Ys (and one you could promote to them) would be that the training for DC4K would only serve to benefit all of their counselors (teachers). Both the YMCA and the YWCA mandate a number of clock hours of training per camp counselor. The number of training hours varies from state to state and usually coincides with licensing requirements for that particular state. 4-H groups: Many 4-H groups are now under the county extension services. See next item. Extension services (in every state): Sample article: http://www.joe.org/joe/2000december/a1.html Like the Ys, the extension services have gotten into after school programs. They use 4H groups in a wide variety of ways. Using the 4-H organization will depend on how active they are in your area. For some rural areas, this organization might the first one to research. They usually have good funding sources. A technique that might be attractive with this group is the fact that divorce is usurping childrens involvement in 4-H

projects. As parents divorce, children are pulled out of extracurricular projects. They might see this as a way for them to preserve 4-H groups in local communities by connecting with parents. The extension groups are into the safety of children after school. DC4K would certainly fall into that category. Extension groups also do a lot of research, and it might be interesting to see where they could go with DC4K. Some college professors have written articles and reports on children of divorce. Many have developed a few of their own agendas for children of divorce. Most of their ideas are to help parents and caregivers know how to provide for the child. Very few, if any, actually address the child except on an intellectual level. Individual denominations that run after school programs either on school grounds or in church facilities: Example: KidCare America, Assemblies of God, are good groups to approach. The majority of church-based after school programs are run in the local church. A plus to using this group is they already have the transportation-from-school problem solved. After the DC4K session the issue of what to do with the child whose parent is still working would be taken care of also. Nationally, churches that run programs in and for the public schools are rare. Most will house the after school program in their facility. This is an avenue to think about pursuing, especially if you are in an area where there are several churches that provide after school clubs. In the churches that do support single parents and run DivorceCare groups, you would find a ready avenue for housing DC4K in their after school programs. Using a church that houses an after school program can be approached as an opportunity to collaborate

with other faith-based groups in the community. Salvation Army Boys and Girls Clubs: Same thoughts with this group as the YMCA/YWCA. Be sure to check out the group in your area. Commercial, for-profit child care programs: There are several very large groups of commercial child care organizations and companies. These organizations are usually licensed in states where after school programs are required by law to be licensed. One advantage of this type of group is they are already organized, usually have the furniture and equipment needed for DC4K, have a captive audience in that the children attend on a five-day basis. They are also free to develop curriculum and belief systems without any barriers except the ones they set for their organization. However, many may not want to support a faith-based program. You might have to sell the DC4K concept to them and explain the benefits to the children, parents and staff in their individual centers. Children will become manageable with more in-control behaviors. Children develop an understanding of their diverse emotions and how to deal with these emotions effectively. Children are not as troubled and argumentative when they understand the divorce. Other Thoughts Be encouraged to reach out to the different organizations in your community that provide after school care. Think outside the box. Some communities have mentoring programs after school. What about approaching one of the organized mentoring programs?

There is a huge group of children who might be reached because you choose to reach out and think outside the box. We are only beginning to skim the surface of places DC4K can go. We know DC4K is changing childrens lives now and in the future. Dont the children in your community deserve an opportunity to have DC4K available to them? Most importantly, start praying today for the Lord to reveal to you what is going to work in your community. Pray for the people who will walk along beside and be part of your team. This is not an endeavor that should be done by one person but by a well-trained DC4K team. Train your team. Collect success stories from the children in your DC4K group and then pass these stories along when you are persuading the decision-makers to make a difference in the life a child. Lastly I would encourage you to take note of your process. Pass your notes along on the DC4K Forum so others can benefit from your experience. Let us know what works and what doesnt work. Resources 1. National AfterSchool Association, NAA: www.naaweb.org 2. National Institute on Out-of-School Time, NIOST: www.niost.org 3. National Child Care Information Center, NCCIC: http://www.nccic.org/ccb/index.html (has paper and research on after school programs, licensing, topics, innovative approaches and programs in after school programs; through the federal Child Care Bureau) 4. National Association of Elementary School Principals: www.naesp.org

5. Child Care Resources, CCR: http://www.childcare.org/families/schoolage-care.htm (this organization is set up in almost every state, and they have national conferences to explore bettering out-of-school time) 6. 4-H groups: www.nc4h.org/afterschool (North Carolina) 7. Childrens Defense Fund: www.childrensdefense.org (researches and supports programs that are good for children and better childrens outcomes) 8. KidCare America: www.kidcareamerica.org 9. Gateways to Better Education: www.gtbe.org 10. Fun with Faith Clubs, Inc.: http://www.funwithfaith.com/faq.htm 11. Child Evangelism Fellowship: www.cefonline.com

MMVI by the author and/or Church Initiative. All rights reserved. Reproducible only when used with a Church Initiative ministry program. Linda Ranson Jacobs is the DC4K creator and developer. For more information, email info@dc4k.org. To discover more about DivorceCare for Kids or to find a DC4K group near you, go to www.dc4k.org.