Many middle school students may turn to MySpace and video games after school lets out, but Providence public school youth can enjoy a host of after-school programs, including breakdancing, yoga, tennis, circus arts, sailing and theater.
The Providence After School Alliance, a network of after-school programs and services, allows middle school students to participate in those activities free of charge. Recognizing the value of these programs, America's Promise - an alliance of youth groups - named Providence one of the 100 best communities for young people in January.
PASA was specifically cited by America's Promise as the reason Providence made it onto its list of the 100 best communities for young people. The survey ranks communities based on their support, funding and innovative policies and programs for children and youth.
Just two-and-a-half years after its inception, PASA has served about 1,000 of the city's 6,000 middle school students in a variety of after-school programs, and officials hope to enroll 1,600 to 2,000 students next year, said PASA director Hillary Salmons.
PASA, the product of a planning process led by Mayor David Cicilline '83, launched on July 1, 2004. It coordinates the efforts of more than 150 public and nonprofit after-school providers, including some run by Brown students. Rather than overwhelming parents with competing programs, Salmon said, PASA pools resources and creates a streamlined registration procedure.
"This city is thinking in an innovative way about what our kids need, and what's healthy for the development of middle school youth," Salmons said. "We realized we needed to create a developmentally appropriate strategy - something other than babysitting. We needed to create a lot of varied experiences."
PASA has promoted variety in its programming through the creation of five AfterZones, campus-like hubs with facilities such as classrooms and gyms. Keisha Frost, coordinator of the East Side AfterZone, said the model helps to facilitate community. The East Side AfterZone - which includes the Hope, Mount Hope and Fox Point areas - has 12 community partners, including as the Providence Black Repertory Company, the Apeiron Institute for Environmental Living and the United States Tennis Association.
"It's been really exciting to work with the community," Frost said. "I can tell the East Side really cares about their youth. It's like a family within the city of Providence."
Participants in AfterZone programs have been pleased with the experience, according to data from the polling group Market Street Research. Within the last year, 71 percent of students rated their programs as excellent, 82 percent said they felt safe and 87 percent felt welcomed and treated with respect by adults.
Still, Salmons said the greatest challenge facing PASA is retention. Most participants attend two days a week, but Salmons would like to see students participating four days a week. More frequent attendance has been shown to have a greater effect on school performance and attendance, she said.
"There's a real culture of non-participation in this community," Salmons said. "The middle school youth have not trusted the adult community to consistently be there for them after school."
One way in which Salmons said she hopes to increase participation is by working more closely with faculty in schools, who can encourage their students to sign up for the after-school programs.
Another challenge for PASA is maintaining adequate levels of funding. When PASA began, the Wallace Foundation, a group focused on education leadership, awarded it a $5 million grant. PASA also received $1 million from the Bank of America. But with about half of these funds spent, Salmon said PASA now hopes to attract regular public funding from the city and state.
Christian Caldarone GS, a master's student in the Urban Education Policy program, worked last summer to find sustainable funding for PASA by examining long-term strategies for maintaining funding. He said PASA has explored the possibility of charging parents for the after-school programs, which are currently free. PASA has also looked into the possibility of obtaining subsidies from the Rhode Island Department of Human Services.
Caldarone's summer research project led to his current year-long internship at PASA, much of which has centered on developing a comprehensive training program for activity providers. He spent two months observing AfterZone programs, including ones that enlisted college students as volunteers.
"The college volunteers were doing a great job, but I saw some room for better training with how to deal with adolescents," Caldarone said. "I also saw a need to give them training about PASA's philosophy."
Caldarone helped coordinate two volunteer orientations for the current winter session, using his fieldwork and discussions with students from Providence College, Bryant University and Johnson & Wales University. He said PASA plans to keep and improve the model, possibly using it for all the organization's volunteers.
There are also a number of Brown undergraduates involved in programs that have come under the PASA umbrella. One such program is FitNut, which teaches fitness and nutrition to girls at Roger Williams Middle School. FitNut existed before PASA but is now included on the Lower South Side AfterZone slate of activities.
FitNut program coordinators Allison Barkley '07 and Victoria Chao '08 said that, aside from a few initial logistical complications, PASA has been accommodating and trusting of their group. Barkley and Chao have kept control of the FitNut curriculum but have not had to worry about coordinating attendance or bussing.
"It's become a lot more standardized, and there's more oversight, which is good for us," Barkley said.
Caldarone also praised PASA for working to maximize resources by building a citywide system to coordinate preexisting programs. He described the organization's work as "a very ambitious undertaking" but said he hopes PASA can keep up with the continued demand for more after-school programming.
"PASA is in a place right now where they're expanding, and I just hope they're able to maintain the quality of what they do now," Caldarone said. "Once they keep improving the structure and adding more great programs, I think demand is just going to keep shooting up."
