VISION

 

All school-age, Maryland youth have access to high quality learning opportunities in the out-of-school hours, allowing them to explore, create and achieve.

 

Mission

 

The mission of the Maryland Out of School Time Network (MOST) is to build a coalition of youth, families, community members, program providers, educators, funders, and policy makers to expand funding , implement more effective policies, and support increased program quality for youth opportunities in the out of school hours.

 

Goals

 

• Create a sustainable structure of statewide, regional and local partnerships, particularly school community partnerships, focused on supporting policy development at all levels.

• Support the development and growth of statewide policies that will secure the resources that are needed to sustain new and existing school-based/school-linked afterschool programs.

• Support statewide systems to ensure programs are of high quality.

Accomplishments

 

• Relaunched the Maryland Affiliate for the National Mentoring Partnership, Maryland MENTOR;
• Developed and implemented Maryland’s Out of School Time Quality Standards Framework which has been adopted at the state level;
• Worked with legislative champions in Annapolis to pass The Public School Opportunities Enhancement Act (HB1402), which allocates $2.5 million over two years in grants for 10 school systems in Maryland that have at least 50% free-and-reduced meals-eligible students;
• Serving as an intermediary sponsor statewide for AmeriCorps VISTA to build capacity in the Out of School Time (OST) field. Since 2012, MOST has placed 96 full-year VISTA members and 99 Summer Associates at a total of 35 distinct program sites to serve communities of youth and families across the state of Maryland. Since 2012, VISTA members sponsored by MOST have collectively leveraged over $707,078 in cash resources and $319,365 worth of in-kind resources for OST programs serving youth across the state of Maryland. Additionally, VISTA members have collectively recruited and managed over 2502 volunteers, who have served a combined total of 16,443 hours in service of MD youth- for a total estimated cash value of $405,977.67 in volunteer time invested in OST programs.
• Supporting programs with training and professional development through professional learning communities focused on youth development, STEM, inclusion and more;
• Presenting 8 statewide, annual conferences, with an attendance of approximately 250-300 educators and advocates each year.