Funding & Community Development for After-School and Summer Programs

I founded one and I direct it. Since 2018, every weekday — tutoring, STEM, arts, athletics, field trips, and a hot meal. I know what these grants ask for because I answer to them myself.

Out-of-school time is where the education continuum quietly breaks. School ends at three, work ends at six, and the hours in between decide a great deal about how a child does. Funding that gap is a specialized discipline, and most providers are running excellent programs while leaving real money on the table.

Where I help

• 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) — the largest federal stream dedicated to before-school, after-school, and summer learning, currently appropriated above $1.3 billion and administered state by state. Proposal development, partnership structuring, and renewal strategy.
• CACFP — the Child and Adult Care Food Program, which reimburses meals and snacks served in after-school programs. Frequently unclaimed by providers already serving food.
• Childcare subsidy programs, state after-school network funding, and foundation support
• Program design, staffing models, and quality standards
• Licensing, compliance, and post-award reporting
• Launching a new after-school or summer program from scratch

Who is eligible — including some who assume they aren't

21st CCLC supports schools, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, charter schools, and parks and recreation departments serving students from high-poverty, low-performing schools. If your church already runs an after-school ministry or a summer program, you are very likely looking at an eligible applicant and don't know it — seegrants & capacity for churches and faith-based organizations.

Where this comes from

I founded Tech Generation Learning Center in West Point, Mississippi in 2018 and serve as its Executive Director. The center is a member of the MS Statewide After School Network and is home to the West Point STEM & ARTS Academy, with day-to-day programming led by our center and program directors. Everything on this page has been tested there first.

The center operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — which means I have been through the conversion, the determination letter, and the reporting obligations that come after, not just read about them. If you are weighing whether to form a nonprofit arm before you apply for anything, that is a conversation I can have from experience.