Providence After School Alliance

In 2007, The Wallace Foundation contracted with the evaluation firm Public/Private Ventures to conduct a 3-year implementation and outcome study of the AfterZones. The outcome study is in its final stages and will be complete by the fall of 2010. 

In a memo citing preliminary year 1 results, P/PV revealed “On average, relative to comparison youth, AfterZones participants reported significantly higher connectedness to school, fewer absences, a lower number of days tardy, more time spent afterschool participating in physical activity, and less frequent misconduct.  These youth also reported marginally significant trends towards behaving more prosocially, more frequently eating healthy foods, having greater knowledge of safe community resources, and feeling safer at community locations.” Although promising, it is important to note that these results represent early findings.  The complete study released later this year will offer a more conclusive look at the AfterZone's impact.

In 2009, PASA commissioned a market street survey of over 200 AfterZone parents and families.  The overwhelmingly positive results show that 97% of AfterZone parents are satisfied with the quality of programs (with 77% very satisfied), and 94% are satisfied with the safety of their children in the programs.  An unexpected finding was that over 87% of parents reported that the AfterZone improves relationships with their child – remarkable given the challenges of adolescence. Likewise, 91% of parents report that the AfterZone improves their child’s interest in school and 81% feel it improves their child’s attendance at school. Read the entire report.