– June 27, 2018
Child Care, Parents, Program Management, out of school time, before and after school program, eleyo, building relationships, reporting, teachers
You can tell people how great your before and after school program is. Sometimes words are not enough, so how do you prove it? Here are some ideas to prove your program is worth additional funding.
Have parents provide feedback
Parents are your program’s biggest advocates. How your program operates and how successful their children are in the program directly impacts their lives. If your current program management software is like Eleyo, and it provides a way to survey parents, it will make it even easier to get feedback from parents. Be open and transparent with parents, let them know where your program stands. Invite them to attend school district meetings or rallies at the capital when you are lobbying for more funds for your before and after school programs. Ask for their help to get the word out about your before and after school program.
Learn about Eleyo's Child Care Program Management Software
Work with the children’s teachers
Teachers have great insight to how well your district’s before and after school program impacts the children academically. Make sure to connect with the teachers to inquire about how children are doing and find out if they have seen any improvements. Making that connection with teachers will add more advocates for your before and after school program.
Show statistics
If you’re speaking to a scientific and number-orientated audience, pull out the statistics on after school programs. Numbers can talk volumes to the right people. If you are having difficulty finding information, check out these two resources.
- The Office of Child Care: An Office of the Administration for Children & Families is a federal organization that provides information, policies, and statistics for child care programs across the U.S. Data is also narrowed down to be specific to your state.
- Afterschool Alliance is a national nonprofit organization who's voice, research, and professional development aids in proving after school programs work. Their site has a lot of information on current issues facing after school programs and statistics to prove these programs are necessary.
Contact your local government representatives
You can’t wait for the government to notice your before and after school program. You’re going to have to contact them. If you put yourself in their shoes, they have lots of people asking for things. Your voice could get lost in the shuffle. But, if you multiply your voice with teachers, parents, and community supporters, you can become very loud. The Afterschool Alliance provides a lot of tools to help take action.
You already know how your program is helping your community. Raise your voice and ask others to join you so the whole world can know how wonderful your program is. Remember, your program is good enough, it’s smart enough, and doggone it, children and their families need your program!
