Robert Bowne Foundation

National Institute on Out-of-School Time on behalf of the Robert Bowne Foundation is pleased to announce the 2012 National Afterschool Matters Edmund A. Stanley, Jr. Research Grants. With generous funding from the Robert Bowne Foundation, it is distributing four $10,000 grants for research in the Out-of-School Time. The grant has the following goals:

1. Generate and disseminate research about community-based organizations serving youth during the out-of-school hours;
2. Build a network of scholars studying community based-organizations serving youth; and
3. Contribute to basic knowledge and the improvement of practice and policy in the area of youth programs during the out-of-school hours.
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Adolescent Time Use: Exploring the role of out-of-school time in schooling and labor market outcomes. University of Chicago. Stephen W. Raudenbush, Chloe Hutchinson Gibbs and Matthew P. Steinberg.
This grant explores the role of students’ out-of-school time use in their educational experience and labor market outcomes. Specifically, the project will assess how a student’s time use is related to important life cycle outcomes, such as high school graduation and college attendance. The data analysis will involve large national databases, including National Household Education Survey (NHES) and Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).

"In the Interest of Colored Boys": C. J. Atkinson, William T. Coleman and the History of Boys’ Clubs in African American Communities, 1906-1931. Society of African American Professionals, Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana. Carter Savage.
This grant will enable the completion of two chapters of an historical study of how African Americans came to be served by Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The chapters will describe local stories: the young people, their neighborhoods, the leadership, and programs of these early Boys’ Clubs in African American communities. Additionally, there will be an analysis of historical documents, such as historically Black newspapers as well as the ‘untold story’ of the role of African American community leaders in the development of these programs.

Graham Cochran and Theresa Ferrari, Ohio State University and 4H Youth Development.
Cochran and Ferrari have been funded to write a research synthesis of youth development and workforce preparation. The synthesis will review literature on the skills needed in the workplace, examine existing research on OST programs designed to prepare youth for the workforce and methods of assessment. The paper will provide guidelines for ways to improve the workforce preparation practices of community-based youth development programs.

Michael Bitz, Ed.D.,Teachers College, Columbia University, N.Y.
Michael Bitz has been funded to write a research synthesis on comic book clubs during the afterschool hours. He will write about the "dynamics, outcomes, and impacts" of afterschool comic book clubs in four cities: New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago. Bitz will explore the notion that comic books produced by children are based on themes of democracy and leadership and represent the voices of children who in any other setting would be labeled as "under-achieving." The paper will highlight not only the pathways to democracy that afterschool programs afford children, but also the depth of responsibility and awareness that accompany those freedoms.

Georgia Hall, Ph.D., National Institute on Out-of-School Time, Wellesley College, MA.
Georgia Hall has been funded to investigate the approach and activities of the New York Urban Debate League, and how youth, through their participation, "develop democracy skills and experiences that can effect personal change." The research study will: 1) describe the components of the debate program; 2) profile the youth and adult participants; 3) provide an analysis of the "debate" approach and activities; 4) investigate the experiences of and impacts on participating youth; and 5) outline the infrastructure that supports the delivery of urban debate activities. Hall will also compare literature that claims debate skills transfer to other social, civic, and academic arenas with data generated from the study.

Marc Camras, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego will write about a collaboration between UCSD, public schools and community-based organizations. The collaboration involved an afterschool program whose goals were to nurture social affiliation and sense of belonging in immigrant youth. Camrus will describe the potential of afterschool programs to support youth's appropriation of "social capital," primarily through fostering relationships with others who are not part of youth's home community and through engagement in civic education and service learning activities during the non-school hours.

Selim Iltus, Ph.D., and Jason Schwartzman, Ph.D. will write about their collaborative work with two community-based agencies in New York City providing afterschool programs: New Settlement Apartments and Hartley House.