New Jersey After 3 Awarded Competitive Federal Stimulus Grant
Funds will create new jobs and strengthen efforts to improve student literacy through afterschool programs.
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – August 4, 2009 – New Jersey After 3, a statewide network of afterschool programs that expand learning time for thousands of New Jersey’s youth and working families, was awarded a $175,000 recovery grant through The New Jersey Commission on National & Community Service to expand its AmeriCorps program. The grant award is a direct result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed in April by President Barack Obama.
The award will provide a well-needed boost to New Jersey After 3’s demonstrated impact on student achievement. New Jersey After 3 will use the federal funds to create new jobs and strengthen its efforts to improve student literacy through a program called, Recovery New Jersey Afterschool Literacy Leaders Program (NJ ALL). The program was designed by New Jersey After 3 to engage students in hands-on literacy and service learning activities that build skills and confidence in reading as a way to improve student achievement.
New Jersey After 3 has operated its AmeriCorps program since 2006, and in that time has placed more than 25 AmeriCorps members in afterschool programs across its statewide network each year. This recovery grant will add an additional 18 AmeriCorps members to that team so that it can do even more to support hard-working families across more than 100 schools.
A recent three-year study of the New Jersey After 3 program documented that students who participated for two years or more demonstrated significant gains in language arts skills. The new AmeriCorps members will focus their work on further strengthening literacy activities in New Jersey After 3 programs. NJ ALL AmeriCorps members will create and lead “Literacy Leaders Clubs” in public schools throughout the state, where students will participate in a variety of literacy-focused activities. Projects will be individually designed to meet the needs of local students and schools, but will pull from a menu of effective, research-backed activities, including: student “read alouds”, book clubs, test-taking tips, study groups, and student-produced school newsletters.
Instilling an ethic of service to others is a cornerstone of New Jersey After 3 programs, and to date hundreds of community service and service learning projects have been performed by New Jersey After 3 students. In fact, the three-year study of New Jersey After 3 documented a correlation between participation in community service and reported academic benefits.
“The State is fortunate to have an asset like New Jersey After 3 working in our communities to provide research-based programs that improve student literacy skills, create new jobs and offer enriching opportunities for Americans to volunteer and to serve,” exclaimed New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells. “Their research-based model, positive evaluation results, and cost-effectiveness helped secure these competitive dollars to benefit New Jersey.”
“Federal stimulus investments like these are just the beginning of an approaching wave of opportunities where New Jersey After 3 can deliver desperately needed support to New Jersey schools, communities and families”, stated New Jersey After 3’s President & CEO, Mark Valli, in reference to a grant competition out of the US Department of Education called ‘Race to the Top’. The ‘Race to the Top’ competition is U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s strategy to increase federal funding as an incentive to reshape the way States structure their schools and maximize learning time for kids. Duncan called this opportunity “Education Reform’s Moon Shot” in a Washington Post Op-Ed on July 24th, referring to the $4.35 billion dollar “Race to the Top” fund to drive reform in our nation’s schools. Other new funding opportunities include increased federal Title I dollars going to local school communities to improve student achievement, and Social Innovation funds growing effective non-profits to scale. New Jersey After 3’s promising data and cost-effectiveness make it an appealing model for future public and private investment.
For more information on New Jersey After 3, please contact Shannon Boehmer @ 267-241-5824 or sboehmer@njafter3.org
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