Word in Black is a collaboration of 10 of the nation’s leading Black publishers that frames the narrative and fosters solutions for racial inequities in America.
More than 100 young people from Ward 7 and Ward 8 who are enrolled in the Children’s Legacy Theatre, Inc. have produced and performed in five plays this year. Many of them also hosted a 10-minute play festival this past summer at the Anacostia Arts Center on Marion Barry Avenue.
With a television show and film festival in the works, Children’s Legacy Theatre, Inc. continues to appeal for additional support from the Office of Out-of-School Time Grants and Youth Outcomes (OST Office) in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education.
Such funds, executive director Jackie Carter said, would further enable Children’s Legacy Theatre, Inc. to serve youth living in communities east of the Anacostia River.
In her latest efforts to give voice to grassroots organizations facing similar hurdles, Carter expressed her support for the Universal Out-of-School Time Amendment Act.
If passed, the Universal Out-of-School Time Amendment Act, introduced by D.C. Council member Matt Frumin (D-Ward 3), would mandate universal access to affordable before- and after-school, school break, and summer programming for District public and public charter school students, including those living east of the Anacostia River, by 2035.
Carter, a member of the coalition that helped shape the Universal Out-of-School Time Amendment Act, said she wants to ensure that the OST Office adequately supports Ward 7 and Ward 8-based grassroots, community-based out-of-school time providers.
On Monday, she counted among dozens of out-of-school time providers who converged on Room G-9 of the John A. Wilson Building to commemorate the introduction of the bill.
“Our program is an after-school job and children depend on it,” Carter said. “It’s important to provide that upliftment for staff and students. We can create more seats with more money. We need some recognition of those children, where they live and the grassroots organizations that serve them.”
Attempting to Take Out-of-School Time Provisions to the Next Level
For at least the last two years, the OST Office hosted resources fairs that connect young people to a bevy of after-school activities.
However, according to D.C. Policy Center, nearly two out of three District children don’t have access to an out-of-school time seat, even with D.C.’s first place ranking for afterschool programming, The District is 53,000 after-school seats and 57,000 summer program seats away from achieving universal out-of-school time access.
As Emelia Calma, director of policy and research at D.C. Policy Center, explained on Monday, Dec. 4, students experience the widest access gaps in high school and during the summer. She said that issues of concern, particularly for families in Ward 7 and Ward 8, involve proximity to enrichment, how to find information about programming, and service gaps for students with disabilities.
Elements of the Universal Out-of-School Time Amendment Act, as it’s currently written, include the OST Office’s incremental growth, of 10% year-by-year, in the amount of available out-of-school time program sceats, and a requirement that the office gives advanced notice about revisions to grant application processes, grant award amounts, and other requirements.
Per the legislation, the Commission on Out-of-School Time Grants and Youth Outcomes would be responsible for the development of a District-wide strategic plan for creating and funding universal access to out-of-school time programs. They would also collaborate with the Mayor’s Office of Racial Equity to identify and address racial equity gaps.
This legislation, which Frumin drafted with the support of the Out-of-School Time Coalition and DC Action, builds upon a bill that D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 2) and then-D.C. Council member David Grosso (I-At Large) introduced in 2016.
Frumin introduced the Universal Out-of-School Time Amendment Act on Monday with Nadeau along with Council members Anita Bonds (D-At Large), Robert White (D-At Large), Kenyan McDuffie (I-At Large), Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) and Trayon White (D-Ward 8).
Dr. Shontia Lowe, OST Office’s executive director, told The Informer that her office is currently unable to take a position on the Universal Out-of-School Time Amendment Act, as they’re currently reviewing the legislation.
She did, however, express her thoughts about the council’s attempt to expand out-of-school time opportunities.
“The OST Office is pleased to see that Council member Frumin appreciates the mayor’s work and commitment to universal access to [out-of-school time programming] by way of initiatives like My Afterschool DC,” Lowe said. “We agree with the spirit of the legislation…In general, however, it is important to note that we are not comfortable with Council legislating agency operations.
Andrea Jones, a Southeast parent of four, two of whom are diagnosed with autism, said the Universal Out-of-School Time Amendment Act should include provisions that hold community-based organizations accountable to special-needs children and mandate the accurate collection of data about this population’s involvement in out-of-school time programming.
Jones, one-fifth of the collective known as We the Motherhood, spent the last few years demanding that the Out-of-School TIme Commission adjusts its data collection process to accurately measure how, or even if, community-based organizations are retaining special-needs children enrolled in before/after-school and summertime programming.
For Jones, the lack of data about the retention of special-needs children not only excludes that population from programming that can enrich them, but gets community-based organizations off the hook for not serving them.
In making her case, Jones recounted instances when providers either didn’t respond to her inquiry about enrolling her children or just outright dismissed them from the program shortly after they entered it.
That’s why, when it comes to the Universal Out-of-School Time Amendment Act, Jones said she wants to see mandated training for community-based organizations and what she described as more of a reliable assessment of how those organizations retain children with disabilities.
Jones cited D.C. At-large Council member Christina Henderson’s Out of School Time Special Education Inclusion and Standards Act as a model in meeting that goal.
“On paper, it looks like a lot of students with disabilities are enrolled but the data doesn’t show how parents are told to pick up their kids, or how kids are kicked out of the program when diagnoses are manifested in that environment,” Jones said. “That needs to be brought to the surface.”
Frumin, Lewis George and Several Others Coalesce Around the Legislation
On Monday, in Room G-9 of the John A. Wilson Building, Frumin addressed Carter’s concerns about funding for grassroots community-based organizations, saying that D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) will soon schedule a public hearing where people can advocate for additions and changes to the Universal Out-of-School Time Amendment Act.
Throughout much of Monday’s program, Frumin thanked the Out-of-School TIme Coalition, DC Action and his council colleagues for their overall support of the legislation. He called it a public safety measure that District children need.
“Much of the focus [on public safety] is on punishment and enforcement but we need to create opportunity for our children. If tens of thousands of people don’t have a sense of hope, you’re never going to feel safe,” Frumin said.
“If we can give the kids something to do, that can be the most effective public safety step we can take,” he continued. “We’re on the front edge in the public safety world too. Hopefully we can push this through, create opportunities to work together and work with the mayor and her team to pull this together and achieve the goal of universal out-of-school time.”
Joining Frumin at the front of Room G-9 on Monday were Calma, Kimberly Perry, executive director of DC Action, Audrey Walker, director of youth services, Jubilee Housing in Northwest, and Nicole Lewis, community relations specialist at D.C. Strings.
Nadeau and Lewis George also made appearances.
In her remarks, Lewis George conveyed sentiments she said are often expressed by program providers who overcome financial strain to consistently serve students.
For at least six years, D.C. Strings has delivered programming for thousands of students in all eight wards of D.C. that integrates go-go and jazz into classical music. In recent years, the organization aligned with Learn24, a Bowser administration project that helps out-of-school time providers build capacity and includes them in a database for District families.
Even with those strides, Lewis emphasized the need for more support and interagency coordination.
“We operate these critical programs at a loss or without the proper investments,” Lewis said. “We must stop being pitted against each other, and support all these providers. Our youth are hurting and we need to do more to address this challenge by listening to our youth and giving them the tool to de-escalate conflict and express themselves.”
Lewis George, an alumna of what was then known as Cuno H. Rudolph Elementary School, got a bit personal in her appeal for out-of-school time expansion. She reflected on her coming of age at Rudolph, where she and others played soccer and penned their own poetry with DC Scores.
As Lewis George explained on Monday, DC Scores started working with Rudolph students at a time when many were embroiled in ongoing conflict between Kennedy Street and Riggs Park, the latter of which increased in representation at Rudolph after their neighborhood school shuttered.
Lewis George said her out-of-school time experience exposed her to Black female poets and helped her boost her writing skills.
She went on to tell audience members at Room G-9 in the John A. Wilson Building that she and many of her peers who participated in the DC Scores program are currently making their mark in the District as young professionals.
Such a phenomenon, Lewis George said, would’ve not been possible without out-of-school time programming like what DC Scores provided.
“No matter what neighborhood you came from, we learned teamwork [and] conflict resolution. We learned to work together,” Lewis George said.
“The first time I got in front of a crowd was my poetry slam for DC Scores. We became more interested in poetry, gaining the writing skills but no one knew how to teach. We became excited about reading, writing and being a team.”