Why Out-Of-School Time Programs Can't Be Out-Of-Sight and Out-Of-Mind

I pooped my pants. We were seated on a school cafeteria floor watching a movie on an old-school media cart, and in the glow of a flickering television, I had an accident. This single moment is all I remember from my own time in afterschool programming. That was 30+ years ago, but it’s still as clear as anything I can visualize from my childhood.

I hope our kids remember much, much more one day.

In elementary school, I was something of a latchkey kid. I literally wore a house key (that I lost a dozen times or more) on a chain around my neck. In this way, I could let myself in after school, do my homework, and make one of my specialties for dinner (and this is worth a brief aside as they were 1. slice of white bread with hot dog and American cheese nuked for 30 seconds in the microwave, 2. macaroni and cheese with lots of grated parmesan added, or 3. instant ramen drained so thoroughly that the seasoning coated it almost like a batter rather than a broth – all recipes that I have revisited in recent years because there is a comfort in these foods even if they aren’t doing much for my figure). I must have been enrolled in afterschool at some point because I have that single vivid memory up above in mind still, but it wasn’t an important place for me. It was just a place where I was left because in the world of being a kid with working parents (at one time, a single working parent) you had to be left somewhere with someone.

What I do remember about being a kid was how several caring adults rallied around me to support my family in meeting my needs. I remember the other families that would help drive me to soccer games, the coaches that would help pay my dues or buy a team uninform if I didn’t have one. I recall afternoons that turned into evenings with my best friend and his mom, playing games, eating snacks and pizza, and generally just being a kid. I remember being invited on folks’ family trips and to car races or sporting events that I couldn’t otherwise imagine attending. I also remember lots of self-directed moments in woods, fields, and streams, engaging in a kind of play that is less common nowadays for plenty of sad and sinister reasons that deserve their own article.

I was a kid that needed a program like East Atlanta Kids Club in a community (Peachtree City, GA) that didn’t always imagine there were many kids like me among them. Save for the kindness of individual adults who stepped up in the absence of institutions that were designed for kids like me, I wouldn’t be sitting in my seat today. In my experience working with Opportunity Youth, I see this play out time and time again. In affluent parts of town, and even in neighborhoods that are trending in that direction, programs like ours are scarce and often an afterthought for many with resources. This isn’t just an issue that impacts kids, to be clear, because kids grow up to be our adult neighbors. I recall how during my work leading Recruitment & Admissions for Year Up United , an administrator at a well-funded, high-performing North Fulton County high school expressed a complete lack of interest in Year Up being presented as an option to students at her school, noting how the supermajority of her kids were legacy students heading to colleges that their parents and grandparents attended, and we would be serving 5% of her kids at most.

For some folks, 5% is a data point that can be abstracted, and it isn’t worth the investment, but quick math and Google suggests to me that ~110 young people entering the adult world just weren’t all that important to that particular school-based leader and the community she served. Those young people had the misfortune of being born into poverty in a place that was doing its best to wait them out.

I want to be very clear about something: at East Atlanta Kids Club, we aren’t interested in waiting our kids out. We don’t see them as a challenge to the community’s wellness that time will resolve. We see them as assets who will be critical for a thriving community, and we are fighting to include them in shaping our shared vision of what is possible in southeast Atlanta. East Atlanta isn’t North Fulton, but increasingly, there is a sense among some folks (and I want to name that donors are sometimes among them) that East Atlanta and our surrounding environs are no longer a place where Opportunity Youth reside. We have 161 kids who enrolled at EAKC last year who would put that assumption to bed, and in 2024, we have already served another 131 such kids and teens. This 2024 cohort, our most affluent group in 26 years of service, comes from households with an average household income of $34,128 and an average household size of 3.65 people (so, roughly 113% of the Federal Poverty Line based on household size).

So, while 30316 has an average household income of $125,721, our EAKC families aren’t having a great time riding the wave of gentrification that has shifted folks’ perceptions of need in southeast Atlanta. Of course, this is also a far cry from the $230,880 that has been reported by the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and many other folks as the amount needed for working parents with two children to live comfortably in Atlanta. As I mentioned in a brief article I wrote last week, that’s closer to where my own household sits on the distribution, and it is indeed relatively comfortable. We aren’t making pressure-filled decisions, we can stomach partial day childcare at ~$30,000/year, and we can take a small trip every now and again. I will never bemoan this. We are very fortunate.

Before this gets too data-intensive and wonky, let me bring these numbers back down to reality. When a family is earning $34,128 around here, they are fighting for stable housing, healthy food, access to healthcare, and transportation necessary to access opportunity and improve their lot. Most other things fall away as “luxuries”. Here’s the thing about our families, though: they know that their kids deserve opportunities to be nurtured and to uncover new talents and interests. They know that these aren’t “luxuries” – they are necessities if we want our kids to belong and grow and feel like they have a stake and a future in this community. We know that too. So, we offer no-cost programming inclusive of afterschool, summer camp, counseling, and food security work. It’s really that simple. Take a gander in Google for afterschool and summer camp programs here in Atlanta and let me know in the comments how many you find that are no-cost. If you are really feeling like a super sleuth, try to drill down to southeast Atlanta and let me know what you find.

Like my pants in the low light of that elementary school cafeteria 30ish years ago, the results are going to stink.

What will our kids remember? I hope it’s a community of caring adults that came together on purpose, not as a happy accident, to ensure that they had a promising future. We will be here doing our bit. We hope you’ll join us!