Over 100 afterschool leaders came together last week at the University of Georgia for the first state pilot of the Georgia Afterschool Institute (GAI). In this first statewide rollout, GAIC brought together 20 afterschool local trainers, 50 afterschool providers from across Georgia, along with representatives from Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Ohio’s statewide afterschool networks, for three days of in-depth hands-on training with national experts learning afterschool-style, experiential learning techniques from youth development and leadership training to project-based learning.
 
GAIC is using the Afterschool Institute as a vehicle for building high-quality in afterschool programs across the state. GAIC believes the Institute can be a primary driver in bringing about the needed change in afterschool programs in Georgia by institutionalizing a professional development effort that acknowledges multiple intelligences and the importance of afterschool style education.
 
Tremendous excitement and momentum is behind this exciting initiative, as displayed by the incredible turnout at last week’s event. Legislators, University of Georgia leaders, funders, national trainers and local afterschool heroes were all present to support this important work. Collectively, Georgia is well-positioned to raise the bar for the afterschool professional development field.
 
Moving forward, some of the key elements of the Institute quality-building strategy that will be developed and implemented in the next phases of this exciting initiative are:

• Focusing on improving middle and high school afterschool education,
• Intentionally connecting with high-level evaluation programs to tailor future Institute’s to the specific needs of afterschool providers in Georgia,
• Developing regional support networks for providers,
• Implementing a high-level, innovative evaluation plan to ensure skills gained at the Institute are reaching Georgia’s kids,
• Taking the Institute model to scale and sustaining it across the state 
   

The Georgia Afterschool Institute was generously funded by the Georgia Department of Human Resources, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, the Georgia Office of Children and Families, the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, and McKenna, Long, and Aldridge, LLC. The next Institute will take place in the spring of 2009.