The City of Seattle’s Families and Education Levy Request for Investment is now posted on the City’s website.

In order for your program to be considered for funding through the levy, your principal needs to specify your program in their proposal. Also, organizations must be on the list of qualified agencies to receive more than $5,000 of levy funds.  Now is a good time to talk with your principal about her/his plan for the funding request. You can educate your principal on the positive academic and social/emotional outcomes that result from quality afterschool or expanded learning opportunity programs.

School’s Out Washington is here to help. We are happy to provide you with resources/research that will support your principal’s proposal. Please contact Emily Emerson for more information. Any questions regarding the request for investment itself will be referred to the city’s Office for Education.

by Virginia Eader, School's Out Washington MSW Student Intern

Of the 13 applicants who applied for this year’s grant, we were able to fund four projects. While all applicants were worthy of praise and support, we feel that the selected projects represent diverse efforts in building public will around the important role afterschool programs play in promoting healthy youth behaviors across the state.

We are pleased to announce the 2012 Healthy Youth Healthy Futures mini-grant award winners:

• White Center Community Development Association (Renton, WA) with project partners: WSU/King County Food and Fitness Initiative, NeighborCare Health Centers, Neighborhood House, Chief Sealth International High School, and Evergreen High School. Project: Build Our Own Movement (BOOM) Youth Summit to promote youth leadership and education around healthy eating, active living and the promotion of healthy behaviors amongst youth in the community.
• Sunset Elementary School Trailblazers After School Program (Airway Heights, WA) with project partners: Airway Heights Parks and Recreation Department, Communities in Schools of Spokane County, and Cheney School District. Project: Health and nutrition education through a community garden project featuring science-based nutrition lessons, family activities and summer education events.
• Quincy School District (Quincy, WA) with partners: Quincy Valley Medical Center, City of Quincy Recreation Department, and Quincy Readiness to Learn. Project: Leprechaun Chase Community Fun Run Event and Fitness Training Program.
• Jack Straw Productions (Seattle, WA) with partners Seattle Public Schools, Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center, Refugee Women’s Alliance, International Community Health Services, and Campana Quetzal. Project: Food Talk, featuring youth-performed bilingual radio spots focusing on culturally- relevant healthy eating and behaviors.

Congratulations! We are excited to support you in your implementation process and to see your projects in action!

Listen below to Jack Straw Productions' radio spots from 2011. (Requires Adobe Flash Player. Click here to download Flash.)

This year, we will again be awarding afterschool programs with grants of up to $3,000 through our Quality Enhancement Grant Project.  To be eligible, afterschool programs must be licensed or certified through the Washington State Department of Early Learning.  Grant funds can be used for a wide range of uses that will lead towards improved program quality.   Our Quality Enhancement Grant webpage has a full explanation of the grant process, timeline and links to download the application.  This year we are also accepting online applications and the link to complete the online form can be accessed through this webpage.

Grant applications are due back to School’s Out Washington by Friday, November 4th and programs will be notified of their funding status by early December. 

For those of you new to grantwriting, it can be an overwhelming and daunting venture.  Take a moment to check out our current grant opportunities webpage where we have links to resources to help you in your grantwriting journey.   Also, feel free to contact Danielle Baer, Communications & Grants Manager at SOWA, or your Washington Regional Afterschool Project specialist for tips and support as you put together your grant application.

Some things to consider with the Quality Enhancement Grant:

•   Read the instructions in full before starting the grant.  Be sure to follow guidelines on length of narrative, font-size, spacing etc.

 •   While funds can be used to purchase supplies, furniture, equipment and so forth, strong applications will make a clear link that these items will contribute to improving program quality beyond the funding period.  We like to see how our funds will make an impact in supporting quality programming for the long-term.

•   Don’t make assumptions that because you know your program so well, that we will too.  Be sure to clearly explain the community you serve and why you should be awarded the grant.  Have someone not familiar with your program read through the grant before you submit it.  An outside perspective may help you catch those things that need further explanation.

•   Be sure to include a clear evaluation plan.  We recognize that evaluation can be tricky and intimidating for many programs.  Pre and post surveys of staff, parents, youth or others involved with the project is something that many programs have used in the past. 

Good luck with your grantwriting and be in touch with any questions. 
 

We recently added a new page to our website listing current grant opportunities for afterschool and youth development programs in Washington State.  Along with a link to the funder and brief description of eligibility requirements, you'll find some additional resources including tips for successful grantwriting and other fundraising resources.

We encourage you to check back often for updates and new grant opportunities. If you're in the Seattle area, we'll be holding a grantwriting training on September 20th and there's still plenty of room left.  If you're located in other parts of the state, get in touch with your WRAP specialist who can provide you with some grantwriting support and may know of other funding opportunities in your region of the state.

These are not easy times to fundraise, especially in our field where we're accustomed to piecing together a variety of funding sources to run programs.  Some important things to think about when developing a funding proposal:

• Clearly describe the population you serve- don't make any assumptions that the funder will know who you're talking about.
• Identify clear goals, objectives and outcomes.
• Clearly articulate your evaluation plan that will measure progress towards achieving your outcomes.
• Share successes of your program and any data you have already collected.
• Make sure your funding request fits the eligibility requirements of the funder.
• Run your project idea by colleagues and peers and always have a couple other people read through your proposal before hitting the submit button.

These are just a few things to consider - we'd love to hear from more folks. Please add a comment and share your tips and suggestions to successful grantwriting.

For the sixth year, School’s Out Washington is raising funds for our Feed Your Brain project. This is a project that we hold near and dear to our hearts.  As an intermediary organization, much of our work does not directly serve youth, but supports afterschool and youth development providers, community members and educators to better serve young people. 

One exception is our Feed Your Brain project.  Every year we raise funds to ensure that our goal of serving 1,500 children and youth is met.  We have received generous support from many foundations including Discuren Charitable Foundation, Medina Foundation and Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund, but we still have not reached our goal of enough funds to support 18 grants to high-poverty, rural communities of Washington State.

Feed Your Brain grants of up to $5,000 provide summer learning opportunities and free, nutritious meals to children and youth.  Research shows that two-thirds of the achievement gap between lower and higher income youth can be attributed to summer learning loss.  We also know that only 15% of eligible children who receive free or reduced price meals during the school year, access the free summer meal program.   Feed Your Brain helps close this gap and provides critical learning opportunities and nutrition to communities that are struggling more today than in the past.

Just today, one of our Feed Your Brain grantees was interviewed for a news story.  Mary Schilling with Grand Coulee Dam School District speaks to the hardships people in her community are facing: "Especially now with this financial crisis that our country's in, when families are having to work more and second, third jobs. Many kids are these kind of latchkey kids that we normally think of during the school year. They have all summer where there's really no one at home."  You can listen to the full story by visiting our Media Center.

Mary’s program provides young people in the Coulee Dam area with not only a safe place to be during the summer months, but opportunities that they would never have otherwise.  Activities include cooking, kayaking, field trips, swimming, fishing and the list goes on and the key ingredient is infusing learning into these activities so young people enter school in the fall on track to continue learning at their grade level.  Here are kids from the program last summer.

We reserve this one time a year to reach out to folks and ask for your help in making sure young people in the most remote areas of our state are not left behind this summer.  Please consider making a contribution to Feed Your Brain and making a real impact in the lives of young people this summer. 
 

It's that time of the year again for our Feed Your Brain grant.  The grant application is now available on our website and must be postmarked by April 1, 2011.  This year, we are taking the exciting step of accepting online applications.  The link to apply online and instructions for completing the application are on our website.

Feed Your Brain addresses the issues of summer learning loss and childhood hunger during the summer months. Schools, community-based organizations and/or tribes in high-poverty, rural areas of our state are eligible to apply for up to $5,000 to operate a summer program for at least 4 weeks during the summer months.  Programs must also serve as an open site through the federally-subsidized Summer Feeding Service Program.  While we only require programs to run a minimum of 4 weeks, we encourage communities to explore ways to extend their meal program longer.  Kids are hungry all summer and through our partnership with the Children's Alliance who oversees a Summer Meals Workgroup, we are encouraging communities to offer the summer meal program longer.  Sue Waldin with WithinReach is available to help communities figure out ways to keep feeding kids all summer long.

This summer, we are excited to again partner with Page Ahead who will provide all the children and youth in each funded program with four, free new books.  More and more research points to the connection between reading at home and keeping students on track to graduate.  This partnership is a great enhancement to Feed Your Brain and one we look forward to continuing in the coming years.

If you have any questions about the Feed Your Brain grant, please contact Danielle. 

Congratulations to our 2011 Quality Enhancement Grant awardees!  This year, we awarded 21 licensed afterschool programs across the state with a total of $60,000 to implement their proposed project to improve the quality of their afterschool program.  Visit our website to see a list of grantees.

Some of the proposed use of funds include:

• Enhancing reading areas with new furniture to create a dedicated space to encourage reading.
• Establishing a sewing program to enhance enrichment activities and infuse math learning through the creative project.
• Implementing a science curriculum in partnership with school day teachers and staff.
• Improving access to technology by purchasing computers and creating a comfortable learning environment.
• Implementing a project focused on growing and eating healthy food.

When considering which programs to fund, we look for proposals where we see a clear explanation of how the use of funds would impact the program's quality improvement efforts for the long-term.   It is amazing to see how a $3,000 grant can make a huge difference in a program and positively impact children and youth in their academic, social and emotional growth.

This is an annual grant opportunity, so keep an eye out for the grant application next September.  Funding for the QE grant is provided by the Washington State Department of Early Learning.

We also will be updating our website soon with grantwriting tips and fundraising resources. To learn more about the QE grant, or for tips and information about grantwriting, contact Danielle Baer at 206-336-6924. 

This year, School's Out Washington will again be administering our Healthy Youth, Healthy Futures Washington Mini-Grant.  This funding opportunity was developed in response to the growing need to support healthy behaviors among young people.  This mini-grant offers communities an opportunity to build public will around afterschool programs while focusing on health issues relevant to their communities. 

Grants of up to $4,000 will be awarded to groups to plan a community campaign, an event or project that focuses specifically on raising awareness among community leaders of the key role partnering with afterschool programs plays in supporting healthy behaviors in youth. To be eligible, applicant organizations must demonstrate a partnership between an afterschool/youth development organziation, school or school district and health organization.  Applicants are required to submit at least two letters of support for the proposal. 

Last year, School's Out Washington funded 5 communities with mini-grants.  Three of the communities focused their project on developing community gardens, one community organized a youth violence prevention summit and the final community held a community health fair.  You can learn more about the garden project on our media page where we have links to articles highlighting the gardens.  We encourage you to get creative and pull together a diverse group of community partners to organize an event or project that will make an impact on the health and well-being of young people. 

If you have any questions about the Healthy Youth, Healthy Futures Washington mini-grant, contact Shannon at (206) 336-6932 or by email.