New Wallace Foundation and EdCounsel resource offers opportunities to discover funding streams and develop partnerships

This July, The Wallace Foundation launched a new free resource created by EducationCounsel (EdCounsel): “Using Federal Funds for Summer Learning and Afterschool: A New Guide for Providers, School Districts, and Intermediaries” to help out-of-school time providers and leaders, school and district leaders, and local government officials, navigate federal funding streams.

The guide begins by breaking down funding streams into the following three categories:

• Creating and sustaining equitable conditions for learning
• Preparing for program delivery
• Building and aligning ecosystems of support

These three streams cover seven elements that are crucial for successful out-of-school time programming: safe and supportive environments, relevant, rigorous, and engaging opportunities, physical infrastructures, human capital, planning, communication, and retention infrastructures, strategic partnerships, and systems of continuous improvement. EdCounsel has identified actions that correspond to each element, as well as funding streams from the Departments of the Treasury, Education, Health and Human Services, Labor, Agriculture, and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) that can assist out-of-school time programs and partners to complete these actions.

This wide variety of funding streams offers opportunities for providers and other stakeholders to form partnerships, if one entity may be able to access funds that another cannot, and diversify the source or type of funding. EdCounsel also includes a glossary for acronyms and a summary for each funding stream, as well as links to explore further.

Learn more about funding by reading EdCounsel’s guide and checking out the Afterschool Alliance’s Funding Database for information on other funding opportunities. Our COVID funding map shows where COVID-19 relief funds are being used for afterschool and summer learning programs.