Funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, After School Assistance Providers Connect (ASAPconnect) and the National Institute for Out of School Time (NIOST) is convening the nation’s leading TA system builders and professional development experts from throughout the country to promote collaboration, share and disseminate innovations and identify promising practices in building effective statewide TA delivery systems supporting after school programs.

The collaborative will convene at three national conference venues that already attract the collaborative’s participants. The purpose of these meetings is to build communication and collaboration among a unique field of TA system builders; to identify best practices in developing the quality of TA providers; and to develop strategies for building TA systems to support and sustain, high quality programs that meet the needs of the families they serve as well as the institutional setting and political structures to which they are accountable. The meetings will be designed and co-facilitated by Ellen Gannett, NIOST and Rocio Abundis-Rodriguez, Executive Director for ASAPconnect.

Participating members include:

• After School Assistance Providers Connect
• Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
• Center for Afterschool Education at Foundations, Inc.
• Francis Institute Resource Center
• MN SMART, Concordia University
• National After School Association (NAA)
• National Institute of Out-of-School-Time (NIOST), Wellesley Center for Women
• National Staff Development and Training Association
• Out of School Time Resource Center, University of Pennsylvania
• School’s Out Washington
• Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
• The After School Corporation
• The Finance Project
• Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center