dc4k in after school programs, part two

7/28/2019 DC4K in After School Programs, Part Two

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they have to let religious groups have

access to the school property after schoolhours as well.

From the Christian Legal Society Equal

Access To Public Elementary Schoolsarticle, Whether a religious ministry has

a legally enforceable rightto meet after

hours in a public elementary school

usually hinges on whether other secularcommunity-oriented groups such as Boy

Scouts, Girls Scouts, 4-H, Campfire Girls,

and YMCA meet after-hours on campus.

If so, the First Amendment guaranteesreligious ministries an equal right to

meet.

There was a Supreme Court ruling in2001 in the case ofGood News Club v.

Milford Central School that Good News

Clubs can meet in public schools after

school hours on the same terms as othercommunity groups. (Good News Clubs

are sponsored by Child Evangelism

Fellowship and are the same organizationthat provides the postcard in the DC4K

workbooks.)

Everything I have read involving the useof public school grounds goes back to this

Supreme Court ruling.

Check with your individual school systemto 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 tohouse DC4K off-site.

2. Research the possibility of using localgroups 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 programseither in public schools or off-site.

3. Research working with a national groupthat has an interest in children after schooland has a concern for the well-being of

children after school. One such

organization is the Elementary Principals

Organization. Make contact through apersonal connection from someone in

your area.

4. Approach a denomination that already hasan after school type program up and

running. Locate a local program and work

closely with that one group as a pilot

program documenting observable resultsof improvement. Get this group to agree

to be a pilot whose documentations and

assessments would be used nationally togain attention to the benefits in housing aDC4K in an after school program. Or if

your denomination has contacts on a

national level, go through your

denominational resources and interviewthem about the best plan.

If your own church has an after schoolprogram up and running, approach that

director or the board of directors and start

with the program in your church.

5. Approach already organized Bible clubsabout partnering with them. Two clubs

that I know of are Child Evangelism

Fellowship Good News Clubs and Funwith 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 tosee about the possibilities of housing a

DC4K group on their school propertyafter school.

Look into using a commercial child care

agency.


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Types of Organizations That Currently

Run After School Programs

Public schools

Churches

Private schools, which are mostly faith-based

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 ofElementary School Principals to see if theymight 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 toassess what he or she thinks would be an

appropriate avenue to follow. Submit a

proposal to speak at one of their nationalconventions, or even start by speaking at astatewide convention. Be sure you are adept

at speaking their lingo.

Emphasize the fact that DC4K will improvestudents 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 LeftBehind act that allocates funding for after

school programs in the public school. It iscalled Twenty First Century Schools, and

they will fund as much as one million dollarsto 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. Theyare 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 facilitiesmay 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 broachthe 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 oftheir counselors (teachers). Both the YMCA

and the YWCA mandate a number of clock

hours of training per camp counselor. Thenumber 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 havegotten into after school programs. They use 4-

H groups in a wide variety of ways. Using the4-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 isusurping childrens involvement in 4-H


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projects. As parents divorce, children are

pulled out of extracurricular projects. Theymight 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 beinteresting 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 ownagendas 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 anintellectual level.

Individual denominations that run after

school programs either on school grounds orin church facilities:

Example: KidCare America, Assemblies of

God, are good groups to approach. Themajority of church-based after school

programs are run in the local church. A plus

to using this group is they already have thetransportation-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 thepublic 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 severalchurches that provide after school clubs.

In the churches that do support single parents

and run DivorceCare groups, you would finda 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 thegroup in your area.

Commercial, for-profit child care programs:

There are several very large groups ofcommercial child care organizations and

companies. These organizations are usually

licensed in states where after school programs

are required by law to be licensed. Oneadvantage of this type of group is they are

already organized, usually have the furniture

and equipment needed for DC4K, have acaptive audience in that the children attend ona 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 wantto support a faith-based program. You might

have to sell the DC4K concept to them and

explain the benefits to the children, parentsand staff in their individual centers.

Children will become manageable withmore in-control behaviors.

Children develop an understanding oftheir diverse emotions and how to deal

with these emotions effectively.

Children are not as troubled andargumentative when they understand the

divorce.

Other Thoughts

Be encouraged to reach out to the differentorganizations 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?


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There is a huge group of children who might

be reached because you choose to reach outand 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. Dontthe children in your community deserve an

opportunity to have DC4K available to them?

Most importantly, start praying today for theLord 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 doneby one person but by a well-trained DC4K

team.

Train your team. Collect success stories fromthe 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 theDC4K 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 InformationCenter, NCCIC:http://www.nccic.org/ccb/index.html (has

paper and research on after schoolprograms, licensing, topics, innovative

approaches and programs in after school

programs; through the federal Child Care

Bureau)

4. National Association of ElementarySchool Principals: www.naesp.org

5. Child Care Resources, CCR:http://www.childcare.org/families/school-age-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 (researchesand 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. Allrights reserved. Reproducible only when used with a

Church Initiative ministry program.

Linda Ranson Jacobs is the DC4K creator and

developer. For more information, email

[email protected]. To discover more about DivorceCare

for Kids or to find a DC4K group near you, go

to www.dc4k.org.

dc4k in after school programs, part two

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