DASN Introduces "Tiered" Member Agencies

DASN knows quality matters. Research from Child Trends indicates, "...adolescents in high-quality programs were more likely to avoid risky behaviors, to have better performance in school, and to have greater social competence, over and above the control variables, than those in no program. Moreover, we consistently found that adolescents in a low-quality program have similar outcomes to adolescents not in a program at all."

In an effort to create more high-quality afterschool programs in our community, Dallas AfterSchool Network has introduced a tiering initiative which will become a robust evaluation and certification process of afterschool sites in fall 2011. Until that time, DASN has given member agencies that comprise its Network the opportunity to join our quality initiative. To demonstrate their commitment, we have asked afterschool providers to:

1. Provide transparency to DASN by providing us with financial documents, licensing or exemption letters, and board rosters.
2. Commit to quality improvement by implementing annually at least 1 of the 10 elements of DASN's quality improvement tool, "AQuA".
3. Help us raise community awareness for the importance of afterschool programs by participating in DASN's community events, Lights On Afterschool and Afterschool Achievers, as well as WFAA-TV's "After the Bell" segments.

Eighteen of DASN's member organizations have risen to this challenge.  Together, those 18 agencies operate approximately 250 afterschool sites, thus extending DASN's quality initiative to tens of thousands of students in our region. 

Today, DASN is supporting these providers with training, and is in the beginning phase of delivering coaching and technical assistance from DASN Quality Advisors to accelerate the pace of program improvement.  We are also directing the majority of our curriculum, in-kind donations and enrichment opportunities to these organizations in order to  maximize finite community resources for the benefit of local children.