Our Work

After School Strategic Initiative

With almost 70,000 students spread across 800 square miles of both urban and rural terrain, Greenville County’s rapidly growing school system will soon be one of the 50 largest in the country. While four out of five students in the county now graduate within four years, the Greenville County Community Action Plan sets a goal to have 85 percent of students graduating within four years by 2010.

To accomplish this, many support systems have been identified — including after school enrichment programs. We know that students who participate in after school programs have higher school attendance rates and receive the additional time and support necessary for academic success.

The work of the After School Strategic Plan Steering Committee was sparked by a group of United Way volunteers who saw the efforts of many local after school programs and identified the expansion of quality programs as an integral component of preparing students for academic success and high school readiness.

Building on the work of Graduate Greenville and the major initiatives of Greenville County Schools to support the success of all students, the Greenville After School Strategic Initiative provides access to and support for high quality after school services for all our children and youth.

To read the Greenville County After School Strategic Plan in its entirety, click here.

Purpose

The purpose of the After School Strategic Initiative is to spearhead a county-wide effort to provide support services and resources for providers of children and youth out-of-school time programs to assist them in attaining high school graduation. The Plan focuses on two critical action areas: 1) building capacity; and 2) increasing quality.

The After School Strategic Initiative highlights three community-level outcomes that underscore the importance of creating a cohesive community resource for after school programs in Greenville County.

Outcome #1:

Increase student academic success at each grade level.

Outcome #2:

At-risk youth enter ninth grade prepared to graduate from high school in four years.

Long-Term Outcome:

All youth graduate from high school in four years.

Funding Opportunity – Request for Proposals

The United Way of Greenville County is providing a multi-year (three years) funding opportunity to implement the Greenville County After School Strategic Plan.

For more information on this opportunity, download the After School Strategic Initiative Request for Proposals.

If you wish to apply to United Way of Greenville County to implement the Greenville County After School Strategic Plan, please download and complete the Intent to Apply form and send to Lori Cashin (lcashin@unitedwaygc.org) by Friday, February 19, 2010. Once your Intent to Apply form has been received and reviewed, you will receive further instructions to apply using our online application system.

Once you have received your log-in instructions, please log in here to complete the online application.

**The online applications for funding are due no later than Monday, March 22, 2010 at 5:00 p.m.**