Youth Development: OST, Mentoring, & Education Equity
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Out-of-School Time (OST) Coordination: Infrastructure for Supporting Healthy OST Ecosystems
Funder: The Wallace Foundation
Project Time Period: 2022 - Present
Project Category: Out-of-School-Time Coordination/Out-of-School-Time Systems/COVID-19 Pandemic/Youth Resilience
About the OST Coordination Study: MAI, in partnership with Research for Action (RFA), Dr. Carolyn Barnes of Duke University, and Dr. Brian Christens of Vanderbilt University been commissioned by the Wallace Foundation to understand how city-level coordination within the OST ecosystem can contribute to community, family, youth, and OST program resilience in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and into the future.
The Work: The study will answer timely questions to produce field-building research that can inform state and local policymakers and OST practitioners, as well as private funders and other stakeholders as they determine the best ways to support cities’ COVID recovery. It offers an opportunity to expand the field’s understanding of the contextual factors that contribute to or constrain the success of the OST sector, such as the OST policy environment, the equity context, and the nature of relationships among OST providers. Finally, the study will examine OST systems’ strategies for and perceived effectiveness in addressing equity concerns – a topic that has not been deeply explored in previous research.