School and Community Partnerships

Community-level coordination will be critical to ensure that the plans to serve children and families can help reduce family stress and align with school-based strategies to support student success. Check out the resources below to help you navigate how to form effective partnerships in your community and make the case for the role of OST programs!

Making the Case: The Important Role of Summer and Afterschool Programs for Student Recovery

• MTAA Summer Op-Ed (June 2021) — The MTAA Steering Council circulated an op-ed about the importance of summer learning for student recovery and the effective use of school-community partnerships to meet student needs. It ran in the Billings Gazette, Havre Daily News, and Helena Independent Record.

• Evidence-Based Interventions: Summer Learning or Enrichment and Comprehensive Afterschool Programs (March 2021) — Website for advocates and decision-makers seeking information on afterschool and summer learning as interventions eligible for funding from the American Rescue Plan.

• Our moment is now. (March 12, 2021)

• Afterschool Alliance’s Guidance on Summer Learning & Recovery — Summer learning programs have the power to be a game changer for youth. Programs can help students re-connect with peers and caring adults, re-engage in learning, and accelerate students’ social, emotional, and academic recovery. Check out this guidance to learn how to build successful summer programs in coordination with community leaders and school districts.

• Powerful Partnerships: School and Afterschool and Summer Programs Together for Student Recovery and Success (May 12, 2021) — The Afterschool Alliance hosted this webinar, which covered how to quickly form effective partnerships and how to maximize an investment in community-based partners for student recovery.

  • Presentation Slides

  • Questions & Answers from the presentation

  • Video - Afterschool & Summer Learning Programs are #HelpingKidsRecover

  • Video - Embrace Summer Learning (full)

Guidance: Building Effective School-Community Partnerships and Making the Case for OST Programming

• MTAA State ARP Outreach — View the breakdown of ARP funding in Montana and how you can utilize this opportunity to leverage expanding learning experiences for youth in your communities!

• MTAA School and Community Guidance 2020-21 — We developed this guidance to help schools meet the needs of students while considering community health and safety.

• Zero to Five OST/School Collaboration Toolkit — Our colleagues at Zero-to-Five Montana have developed a toolkit to support child care and out-of-school time partnerships with schools.