Out-of-school time (OST) programs are some of the most powerful spaces for learning rooted in young people’s interests, identities, and communities. But even the strongest programs face a familiar challenge of how to sustain participation over time.
Across the US, OST leaders are grappling with recruitment and retention, especially for youth who stand to benefit most from sustained access to OST programs. An OST program may spark initial interest, but young people too often encounter fragmented pathways, limited connections between programs, and barriers that make sustained participation difficult.
As one OST leader shared, “We’ve been facing real challenges with recruiting and retaining youth… We all need to get more creative about how we engage and sustain young people’s interest over the long term.” What’s becoming increasingly clear is that this is not just a program-level challenge. It is a systems challenge.
We’re excited to share a new guide that takes this challenge head-on: Strengthening Coordination and Connections: How Out-of-School Time Intermediaries Build Relational Infrastructure and Boost Recruitment and Retention. Drawing on a multi-year research-practice partnership, the guide focuses on the often-overlooked role of out-of-school time intermediaries (OSTIs) in strengthening coordination and connection.
Coordination Practices with Impact
OSTIs sit at the center of local and regional learning ecosystems. The report identifies three types of coordination practices that support partnerships, programs, and practices that knit together learning opportunities across a regional OST ecosystem:
- Developing collaborative programs: OSTIs can lead the design and implementation of programs that include multiple organizations and build on their unique strengths. This can include developing collaborative proposals, establishing shared metrics and standards, and designing and managing programs.
- Building capacity: OSTIs provide training and technical assistance that improves the effectiveness of programs and regional coordination, such as offering training on positive youth development or specific programs.
- Brokering resources and opportunities: OSTIs also play an essential role in brokering opportunities to and between organizations and individuals in a region, including program funding, scholarships, and other resources, as well as employment and partnership opportunities.
Across the eight intermediary organizations in our study, each saw improvements in enrollment, retention, or both as a result of their coordination efforts. In one case, strengthening relationships between school-day and OST educators led to what one OSTI leader called a “dramatic impact” on enrollment and retention, as young people began to see their learning experiences as connected rather than separate.
Four Principles for Connecting and Coordinating
The guide distills the connecting and coordinating work of OSTIs into four guiding principles. These include:
 | 1. Youth as Network Builders Young people are not just participants in OST programs; they can connect with other youth to support recruitment and retention into OST experiences. When youth take on roles as mentors, ambassadors, and leaders, they strengthen peer networks, deepen engagement, and expand pathways for others. |
 | 2. Interest-Driven Learning Engagement grows when programs are aligned with what young people care about. Intermediaries help systems listen to youth, translate interests into programming, and connect those interests to real opportunities. |
 | 3. Responsiveness to Family Contexts Participation is shaped by the realities of daily life. Engaging families as partners to co-address barriers like transportation, scheduling, and cost broadens access and sustains involvement. |
 | 4. Grounding in Long-Term Relationships Strong ecosystems are built on trust over time. Intermediaries invest in what we call relational infrastructure, which includes the relationships, routines, and shared practices that allow organizations to work together effectively. |
Relational Infrastructure as a Foundation for Coordination and Connection
Across all four principles, one idea stands out: relationships are the foundation for supporting coordination and connection in the out-of-school time space. Whether it’s connecting youth to peers, aligning programs with interests, engaging families, or sustaining partnerships, this work depends on networks of trust and collaboration. This relational infrastructure is often invisible, but it is what allows systems to function in ways that are coherent, inclusive, and responsive.
As one OSTI leader put it, the work is ultimately about “what it really takes to create strong pathways and handoffs for young people,” especially in communities where resources are limited and coordination is essential.
At the heart of this work is a shift from isolated programs to connected pathways across programs. Instead of asking how a single program can engage youth, intermediaries are asking how young people can move across a network of opportunities over time while building skills, relationships, and a sense of belonging along the way. This kind of coordination is not just technical; it is deeply relational. It depends on trust between organizations, shared goals, and ongoing communication that extends beyond any single initiative or funding cycle.
This guide is a product of the Making Connections project, an ongoing multi-year partnership between the Connected Learning Lab, the STEM Next Opportunity Fund, and afterschool networks across the U.S. From 2021 to 2026, the project explored how to better connect OST learning ecosystems, with a focus on STEM and equity. Through interviews, ongoing collaboration, and analysis of participation data, the research team worked alongside intermediary organizations to understand both the barriers to sustained engagement and the strategies that are making a difference. What emerged was a consistent insight that coordination is about building the relationships and infrastructure that make alignment across OST organizations possible. While the project focused on STEM, these lessons extend broadly across the OST field and align with the connected learning framework, which emphasizes linking young people’s interests, identities, and social relationships to meaningful opportunities.
Post by: Maggie Dahn, Mimi Ito, and Kylie Peppler.
