Is it possible for youth program directors to successfully raise funds in a struggling economy?

Author Carolyn Hudman contends it is easier than you think! Discover how you can take advantage of untapped resources in your local community through strategic friend-raising and creative fundraising with her new book, Finding Funding for Youth Programs, now available on Amazon.com.

2015 STEM Video Competition

Every day a light goes on in a young person's head as he or she grasps new concepts in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology—all because an afterschool or summer learning program has created a hands-on experience where interests are sparked and passions are fueled. Now is the time to tell that story.

Tom Wyatt is the chief executive officer of Knowledge Universe-United States, the nation's largest private provider of early childhood education and care and the parent company of the KinderCare, CCLC, Champions, Knowledge Beginnings, Cambridge Schools and The Grove School brands. Under Wyatt's leadership, these brands collectively provide early learning and school-age programs to nearly 175,000 children in more than sixteen hundred locations and more than four hundred programs around the country.

Charles Smith, Ph.D., is the founder and Executive Director of the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality, a division of the Forum for Youth Investment, and Senior Vice President at the Forum. The Weikart Center currently provides technical supports to a portfolio of more than eighty-five quality improvement systems and quality intermediary organizations in thirty-eight states, including several thousand direct service organizations. Dr. Smith leads the measures and analytics team at the Weikart Center. His current areas of focus include design and implementation of lower-stakes performance accountability policies and integration of afterschool systems with schools.

The National Afterschool Association (NAA) has been awarded funding from the Noyce Foundation to develop the first-ever afterschool STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) credential. The investment centerpiece -- a STEM-related micro-credential and digital badge series -- offered by NAA and developed with Click2SciencePD, will serve as a validated, industry-wide indicator that afterschool staff have the requisite competencies to facilitate STEM learning across a variety of settings.

The New Year is the perfect time to evaluate the efficacy of programming thus far, and ensure high quality in what's planned for the second half of the academic year.

NAA is proud to welcome Dr. Dale Blyth to the NAA board as one of its newest members! Dr. Blyth is Extension Professor in the College of Education and Human Development, the Howland Endowed Chair in Youth Development Leadership, and a Senior Research Fellow with the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota.

It can be a real challenge each year to equip staff, impress parents, and, most important, excite and engage children. To make planning easier, we've created a guide full of products incorporating out-of-school time and STEM that are perfect for afterschool and summer programs of every type. Our products promote creativity, learning, and fun, while delivering the keepsakes children and parents love.

Kirk A. Astroth, director of the Arizona 4-H Youth Development program, and Dr. Dale Blyth, Professor and Howland Endowed Chair for Youth Development Leadership at the University of Minnesota, have joined the National AfterSchool Association's Board of Directors.

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, National AfterSchool Association, Nickelodeon, and Penguin Young Readers are joining forces to launch "Peter Rabbit: Hop to Health."