Penn’s Out-of-School Time Resource Center

Posted by on December 12, 2003

The University of Pennsylvania is pleased to introduce its “Out-of-School Time (OST) Resource Center.”

Funded by a grant from the William Penn Foundation, the OST Resource Center is part of Penn?s School of Social Work and is housed in its Center for Research on Youth and Social Policy (CRYSP).

The OST Resource Center is a pilot project which may extend beyond its six-month timeframe. Its purpose is to help collect, combine, provide access to, and measure the impact of diverse OST resources. Its goal is to enrich out-of-school time programs throughout the city and, ultimately, their ability to make positive changes in children?s lives.

The OST resource Center is available, free of charge, to all program staff and administrators. Its current projects and services include:
1. Identifying and helping to coordinate resources among programs and organizations. These resources include professional development, direct student services, and existing publications.

2. Establishing a formal and accessible source of OST resources, such as journals and research studies.

3. Locating, developing and beginning to use tools to measure the effect of teacher training on program quality.

The OST Resource Center does NOT provide teacher training, site visits, customized technical assistance, student activities, or financial support. Rather, its purpose is to connect Philadelphia organizations with one another, with local and national resources, and with information about the role of resources in program improvement.

For more information about The Out-of-School Time Resource Center, please contact:
Nancy Peter, M.Ed.
Director, Out-of-School Time (OST) Resource Center
School of Social Work
University of Pennsylvania
4200 Pine Street, 3rd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4090
Phone: (215) 898-0640
Fax: (215) 573-2791
E-Mail: npeter@ssw.upenn.edu
http://www.ssw.upenn.edu/crysp