GPAC
As POISE spent time with a select group of existing and potential grantees, who primarily provide after school programming services, we came to the realization that valuable programming and resources available at one organization were not utilized or known to others. We then began to ask if these organizations would benefit from a collaboration of similar programs to discuss ideas, programming, and best practices. The response from each organization was yes.
Accordingly, POISE took the initiative to bring these organizations together. This group started as several independent after school providers seeking to determine and develop methods of providing better services to the youth they serve by taking advantage of the knowledge, resources, and efficiencies that a collaboration brings. The Foundation engaged the Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise (PACE) to facilitate the development of the collaboration. As a management services organization (MSO), PACE has a forty year history of providing capacity building grants, training and consulting services to community-based nonprofit organizations who represent African American and other disadvantaged communities.
The Collaboration took hold after eighteen months of team building and formed a network called the Greater Pittsburgh After School Consortium. The Consortium in now taking on a life of its own with its own memorandum of understanding guiding its operations for its current and future members. The Consortium allows the various programs to network, share best practices, obtain staff and professional development, and expose their youth to other youth from around the Pittsburgh Region. The Consortium currently brings together approximately eight small to medium sized after-school programs from across Allegheny and Beaver Counties. It also currently impacts between 700 and 1,000 children represented by the various programs.
The programs represent the following communities:
| Hill District | North Side |
|---|---|
| Downtown Pittsburgh | Moon Township |
| Aliquippa | Coraopolis |
| North Versailes | Manchester |
| Alliquippa Alliance for Unity & Development | Mooncrest After School Program |
|---|---|
| CADA Programs | Schenley Heights Community Development Corporation |
| Coraopolis Church of God | Urban Youth Action. Inc |
| Manhester Youth Development Center | Young Men & Women’s Heritage Association |
Our long term goals for the project include: increased individual program and group resources; increased knowledge and professionalism among staff; and children who, through broader exposure, have a wider view of the community and their place in it.
As stated above, one of the goals of the Consortium is to foster an environment where the youth from one community can come together with youth from other communities. Children, who are enrolled in a community-based after school program in their neighborhood, seldom come in contact with children or adults from other communities and therefore have a very narrow view of the more general community and their opportunities within it.
In 2007 and 2008, over 150 youth from various Consortium partners participated in a day of horticulture helping the Fresh Air camp in Mars, PA plant trees, shrubs and flowers. This activity is an example of bringing youth from various communities together to accomplish an important task.
