New Jersey After 3 Nominated as Finalist at NJBIZ 2010 Nonprofit Innovation Awards
New Jersey After 3's Citywide Trenton Afterschool Partnership Recognized!
New Brunswick, NJ – February 8, 2010 – New Jersey After 3, a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding afterschool opportunities for New Jersey’s kids, was nominated by NJBIZ as an Innovative Program finalist at the 2010 Nonprofit Innovation Awards for the innovative citywide afterschool partnership New Jersey After 3 developed with The City of Trenton.
The innovative citywide public/private collaboration, titled the Trenton Afterschool Partnership, or TAP, was initiated in April 2009 and launched in the fall of 2009 after New Jersey After 3 was awarded a competitive bid to expand learning time by over 40% across Trenton’s 22 public schools.
Providing critical services across an entire city served as a national model for how to effectively leverage public and private sector resources to meet the needs of students, families and school communities on a large scale. During the 2009/2010 school year, the Partnership served over 2,200 public school students and their families in Trenton alone. Statewide, New Jersey After 3 supports more than 12,000 students and their families across 115 public schools.
TAP provides all Trenton Public School families with easy, affordable access to high-quality afterschool programs, and improves student achievement across the city by creating safe learning environments for children while parents are still at work. Through TAP, New Jersey After 3 partners public schools with local community-based organizations, like Children’s Home Society and the Boys and Girls Club of Trenton & Mercer County, to work together to implement New Jersey After 3’s evidence-based afterschool model.
The New Jersey After 3 model was selected by the Trenton Board of Education not only for its demonstrated impact on student achievement, but also for its cost-effectiveness and focus on service learning, career skills, and sports/fitness activities.
Two recent studies position New Jersey After 3 as a cost-effective strategy to keep kids safe, improve student achievement, and support working families on a large scale. An independent evaluation of New Jersey After 3, published in April 2009 by Policy Studies Associates of Washington, DC, shows that students who participated in New Jersey After 3 programs for two years or more demonstrated significant gains in their Language Arts skills. The study also revealed significant improvements in the study skills, computer skills and math skills of participants. A 2009 study by Public/Private Ventures shows the average cost of high-quality afterschool programs to be approximately $22 per child per day. New Jersey After 3 programs cost less than half that amount, and are supported through a variety of public and private grants and contributions.
“We are honored to be nominated as a finalist for the 2010 NJBIZ Nonprofit Innovation Award alongside four remarkable organizations from across the State”, shared Jim McGlynn, Director of Development & Policy Initiatives for New Jersey After 3. “We’re proud of the recognition that the Trenton Afterschool Partnership has gained for New Jersey After 3, but even happier for our school and nonprofit partners. This new paradigm is delivering results because of their hard work and commitment to their kids and community. And none of this would be possible without the critical financial support we receive from the State, the City and private investors like Bank of America and The Princeton Area Community Foundation.”
The recognition from NJBIZ is viewed as a sign of things to come as New Jersey After 3 awaits entry in the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation federal grant competition and other Federal grant opportunities later this year. If the organization is successful in its bids, millions of dollars would flow to expand learning time across additional school communities across the state.
New Jersey After 3 was joined by New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of New Jersey, Circle of Life Children's Center, Inc., Executive Women of New Jersey (EWNJ), and the Somerset County Coalition on Affordable Housing (SCCOAH) as nominees for this prestigious award.
The 2010 Nonprofit Innovation Awards was held on February 9, 2010 at The Palace at Somerset Park. For information, please contact Sarah Spangler at 732-246-5713 or sspangler@njbiz.com. For more information on New Jersey After 3’s Trenton Afterschool Partnership, please visit www.njafter3.org, or call (732) 246-7933.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 8, 2010
CONTACT:
Shannon Boehmer
New Jersey After 3
(267) 241-5824
sboehmer@njafter3.org
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