Name: Central Texas Afterschool Network (CTAN)
Partner for: 7 years
Partner with: Target Graduation
Our Relationship:
Assessing youth programs
UWATX facilitates Youth Program Quality assessments in our community to help providers isolate the exact areas where their program could improve. CTAN has been a valuable partner in these efforts by providing trained staff and volunteers to conduct individual assessments. These annual assessments allow programs to evaluate how they’re doing and put in place a plan to improve – studies show that this type of measurement leads to better programs.
Training professionals to provide high-quality programs
Once areas of improvement are defined, UWATX and CTAN work together to schedule, plan and conduct topic-specific training classes for programs staff. Topics include building community, quality coaching and cooperative learning. Through this professional development program, CTAN and UWATX improve students’ out-of-school time (OST) experiences by making sure programs are enriching, educational, safe and supportive.
Conducting a first-of-its-kind survey of Austin afterschool and summer programs
This summer, UWATX was joined by AmeriCorps VISTA summer associates to conduct a first-of-its-kind survey of out-of-school time programs in the Greater Austin area. Previously, there was no comprehensive data on the availability or quality of programs for students outside of school. This research project was be a first step to get a sense of the landscape of services. We continue to work with CTAN staff to analyze the results and take the next vital steps to improve the OST network.
What we’ve accomplished together
Together, we’ve conducted more than 100 YPQ trainings in the Austin community and trained more than 1,500 people representing more than 50 organizations.
How CTAN makes Austin greater
“CTAN has been an instrumental partner in increasing our community’s capacity to provide high quality programs and help prepare students for success.” – Nichole Lopez-Riley, Director of Target Graduation