Summary
Out-of-school time (OST) programs are ideal settings for learning connected to young people’s interests, identities, and communities. After a program sparks an interest, however, young people often struggle to persist in deepening their knowledge and developing skills. This struggle manifests in the challenges OST organizations face in recruiting and retaining learners who would most benefit. An underlying problem is the limited coordination across programs and weak linkages between in-school and out-of-school learning experiences.
OST Intermediaries (OSTIs) play a vital role in addressing this problem by strengthening coordination and fostering connections among organizations. They perform many functions that knit together and grow the impact of regional OST programs and organizations, including fundraising, policymaking, and developing partnerships. This guide focuses on one of the core functions of OSTIs—coordinating between programs and organizations—and the impact these activities have on recruitment and retention of young people.
OSTIs employ three types of coordination practices that support partnerships, programs, and practices that knit together learning opportunities across a regional OST ecosystem:
Developing collaborative programs
Building capacity
Brokering resources and opportunities
When implemented in sustained and effective ways by OSTIs, our research has documented how these practices can have a positive impact in youth recruitment and retention, particularly in regions and in fields with limited capacity. This guide offers insights and recommendations for how OSTIs can effectively enact these coordination practices to improve recruitment and retention. Each of the eight organizations that we documented as part of this research saw an increase in their enrollment, improved retention, or both as a result of the coordination practices they implemented.
Written by: Maggie Dahn, Mimi Ito, and Kylie Peppler.
