The Iowa Afterschool Alliance and Iowa Department of Education have provided guidance for application to the Iowa 21st Century Community Learning Centers afterschool grant program.

1. Applying for Iowa’s 21st Century
Community Learning Centers Grant
What you need to know to write a quality 21st
Century Community Learning Centers proposal.
Sponsored by the Iowa Department of Education

2. 21CCLC Application Workshop Agenda
• About the 21st Century Community Learning
Centers Grant Program
• Iowagrants.gov Walk-through
• Components of the Online Application
– Budget and Budget Narrative
– System Capacity
– Education, Enrichment, and Family Activities
– Collaboration and Partnerships
– Program Administration
– Sustainability
– Monitoring and Evaluation

3. Enhancing Iowa’s 21st Century Community
Learning Centers
• Iowa Department of Education wants to:
– Be a partner
– Expand access to 21CCLC across the state
– Promote program quality and continuous improvement
– Support the Iowa 21CCLC network
• Iowa Afterschool Alliance will:
– Conduct application workshops across the state
– Provide TA to applicants
– Organize grant scoring and provide award recommendations to DE
– Support new and continuing grantees throughout 2011

4. The Basics – About the 21CCLC Grant Program
• Formula funding to states – allocation similar to Title 1
• States administer the program and are allowed to establish
own grant guidelines
• Supplement, not supplant, existing programming to expand
access to afterschool programming
• Under NCLB, program focuses on “high poverty, low
achievement” districts and students in most need of raising
achievement
• Educational remediation + enrichment + family literacy
and/or other educational services
Resource:
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/21stcclc/index.html

5. 21CCLC in Iowa
• 2011 funds available: $4 million
• Cohort V (2009-2014): $1 M, 4 awards
• Cohort IV (2008-2013): $2.6 M, 11 awards
• Cohort III (2007-2012): $1.7 M, 5 awards
Resource: www.iowa.gov/educate

6. 21CCLC in Iowa, cont.
Category Total 2008
21CCLC Grantees 20
Sites (Centers) 51
Schools 130
Students Served 6203
Adults Served 2305
Paid Staff 779
Volunteers 573

7. New Vision for Iowa Program in 2011
Department as a partner, not regulator
Integration of service-learning into grants
Focus on sustainability and enhancing quality
Collaboration in program development
Development of an Iowa 21CCLC network

8. Eligibility
• Absolute Priority: Programs serving students
designated Title 1 school wide eligible
• Competitive Priority:
1. Programs serving students from schools designated
SINA
2. Proposals jointly submitted by LEA and other partner
• Education agencies, CBOs, FBOs, other public and
private entities – pretty much anyone!

9. Grant Award Information
• Five year grants
• Minimum award = $50,000 per site per year
• Maximum award =
Yrs 1-3
$100,000 per site
100%
$400,000 per application
Yr 4
• Grant funds gradually decrease
75%
over the five years
Yr 5
• Yr 4: grantee must demonstrate
50%
sustainability and maintenance
of attendance and quality for 5th yr funding

10. Common Elements of Quality Before &
Afterschool Programs
• Program is a combination of academic, enrichment, cultural, and recreational
activities that guide learning and engage children and youth in wholesome
activities
• Goal setting and strong management
• Planning for long-term sustainability
• Quality afterschool staffing
• Attention to safety, health, and nutrition issues
• Effective partnerships
• Strong involvement of families
• Extended learning opportunities
• Linkages between school-day and afterschool personnel
• Evaluation of program progress and effectiveness
Find out more information on afterschool quality at
www.iowaafterschoolalliance.org.

11. Allowable Activities
• Remedial education activities and academic enrichment learning
programs, including providing additional assistance to students to
allow the students to improve their academic achievement [Req];
• Mathematics and science education activities;
• Arts and music education activities;
• Entrepreneurial education programs;
• Tutoring services (including those provided by senior citizen
volunteers) and mentoring programs;
• Programs that provide after-school activities for limited English
proficient students that emphasize language skills and academic
achievement;
There are more!

12. More Allowable Activities
• Recreational activities;
• Telecommunications and technology education programs;
• Expanded library service hours;
• Programs that promote parental involvement and family
literacy [Req];
• Programs that offer a service-learning component [Req];
• Programs that provide assistance to students who have
been truant, suspended, or expelled, to allow the students to
improve their academic achievement; and
• Drug and violence prevention programs, counseling
programs, and character education programs.

13. Required in 2011: Service-Learning
Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates
meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the
learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen
communities.
Community Service vs. Service-Learning
If school students collect trash out of an urban streambed, they are
providing a valued service to the community as volunteers. If school
students collect trash from an urban streambed, analyze their findings to
determine the possible sources of pollution, and share the results with
residents of the neighborhood, they are engaging in service-learning.
Resource: www.servicelearning.org

14. Iowagrants.gov Walk-through
www.iowagrants.gov

15. THE ONLINE APPLICATION
Please use the printed iowagrants.gov application and scoring
rubric to follow along.

16. Elements of the Application
• General, Cross-Cutting Elements – 20 points
• Budget Narrative – 20 points
• Abstract – Not scored
• System Capacity Summary – 20 points
• Narrative:
– Education, Enrichment, and Family Activities - 50 points
– Collaboration and Partnerships – 30 points
– Program Administration – 25 points
– Sustainability – 40 points
– Monitoring and Evaluation – 20 points
• Competitive Priority – 10 points
Maximum Possible Points = 230

17. Elements Ranked by Maximum Possible Score
• Narrative:
– Education, Enrichment, and Family Activities - 50 points
– Sustainability – 40 points
– Collaboration and Partnerships – 30 points
– Program Administration – 25 points
– Monitoring and Evaluation – 20 points
• General, Cross-Cutting Elements – 20 points
• Budget Narrative – 20 points
• System Capacity Summary – 20 points
• Competitive Priority – 10 points Can be deciding score
• Abstract – Not scored

18. Scope of Operation Requirements
• After school programs:
– Must operate at least 3 hours per day, beginning when school dismisses
– Must operate 5 days per week during the school year
– Must include a service-learning experience every year of the grant
– Must offer daily, nutritious snack that meets reqs of USDA National School
Lunch Program for meal supplements
– Must provide at least 60 minutes of meaningful physical activity weekly
• Before school programs:
– Must operate the before school program at least an hour per day ending just
before school begins
• Summer and/or Saturday programs:
– Must operate at least 3 hours per day
– Must offer a daily nutritious breakfast and/or snack that meets USDA reqs
Resource: www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/afterschool/

19. The Budget and Budget Narrative
• Follow grant guidelines
– Min and max for sites and applications
– Gradual funding decreases
– Required set-asides:
• Eval no less than 4%
• Prof. Development no less than 5%
• Access up to 8%
• Admin up to 8%
• Budget must justify necessary and reasonable costs
• Must link to activities proposed in narrative – make linkages
clear to the reader!
• NO MATCH REQUIRED – but evidence of partner
commitment will score you points

20. The Budget and Budget Narrative, cont.
• Follow per student, per day guidelines: $7.50 per day x no.
of students x days in operation – designed to ensure cost-
effective programming
• Restrictions
– Indirect costs must be included in administrative costs.
– Unexpended grant funding cannot be carried forward in any fiscal
year without prior approval by the Iowa Dept. of Education.
– Applicants are discouraged from charging fees. Programming must
be accessible to all students regardless of ability to pay.
– Funds must not supplant existing programs. 21CCLC funds are
intended to supplement existing programs.
Resource:
http://www.financeproject.org/publications/BeyondtheCheckbook.pdf

21. Sample Site Budget
Site: SCHOOL/SITE NAME
Student Prog. Family Literacy Annual Site
Item Total Total Total
Personnel $0.00
Staff Travel $0.00
Materials $0.00
Professional Develop. (min 4%) $0.00
Access, Trans. (max 8%) $0.00
Evaluation (min 4%) $0.00
Admin/Indirect Costs $0.00
Site Totals $0.00 $0.00 $0.00

22. Sample Grant Budget
Item Yr. 1 Yr. 2 Yr. 3 Yr. 4 Yr. 5 5-yr Totals
Personnel -Student $0.00
Personnel - Family Lit. $0.00
Staff Travel - Student $0.00
Staff Travel - Family Lit. $0.00
Materials - Student $0.00
Materials - Family Lit. $0.00
Professional Develop. (min 4%) - Student $0.00
Professional Develop. (min 4%) - Family Lit. $0.00
Access, Trans. (max 8%) - Student $0.00
Access, Trans. (max 8%) - Family Lit. $0.00
Evaluation (min 4%) - Student $0.00
Evaluation (min 4%) - Family Lit. $0.00
Admin/Indirect Costs - Student $0.00
Admin/Indirect Costs - Family Lit. $0.00
Annual Totals - All Sites $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00

23. System Capacity
• Provide evidence of history of grant management
– Ability to carry out proposed services
– Ability to meet required and proposed deadlines
• Provide evidence that organization has successfully
provided educational and enrichment services in the
past
Answer this question: Is your organization able
to carry out an effective 21CCLC?
How do you know?

24. Education, Enrichment, and Family Activities
General Information
• Proposed activities should align and support the district’s
Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP)
• Show engagement of School Improvement Advisory
Committee (SIAC)
• Community Needs Assessment – how do proposed activities
meet identified community needs?
• Goals, objectives, and eval measures should align with 4
Results and be measurable
• Alignment with school curriculum – evidence that school and
program will communicate with schools
• The activities should be based in evidence-based practice,
varied and inclusive

25. Principles of Effectiveness

26. Academic Assistance
• Remedial education activities, including providing additional assistance to
students to allow them to improve their levels of academic achievement;
• Reading and language arts activities;
• Mathematics and science education activities;
• Tutoring services (including those provided by senior citizen volunteers) and
mentoring programs;
• Programs that emphasize language skills and academic achievement for limited
English proficient students;
• Telecommunications and technology education programs;
• Expanded library service hours;
• Entrepreneurial education programs;
• Assistance to students who have been truant, suspended, or expelled, to allow
the students to improve their academic achievement.

27. Educational Enrichment
• Positive youth development activities;
• Service-learning;
• Arts and music education activities;
• Recreational activities;
• Technology education;
• Drug and violence prevention programs;
• Character education and counseling programs;
• Other learning support opportunities such as mentoring and coordinated
school health;
• Programs that directly address the needs of students with disabilities
(learning, developmental, physical, brain injury, etc.).
Resource:
http://www.sedl.org/afterschool/resources/curriculum.html

28. Family Programming and Services
More than family nights!
– Reading and literacy classes that support and strengthen
reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills;
– Adult education classes;
– GED completion classes;
– English language literacy classes;
– Employment and interview support classes;
– Expanded library service hours.
• Bring in partners to serve families
Resource: www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/

29. Collaboration and Partnerships
• Provide evidence of partnerships and the history of those
relationships – MOUs encouraged, not required
• Explain how you intend to maintain partnerships
• Show effective use of public funds, i.e. leveraging additional
funds and utilizing other public programs to enhance
21CCLC
• In development of application, you should show:
– Engagement of families and youth
– Engagement of School Improvement Advisory Council
• Use of an advisory committee of diverse stakeholders
Resource: www.afterschool.gov

30. Program Administration
• Provide or show evidence of:
– Program and fiscal management plan
– Project work plan
– Key personnel, credentials and expertise
– Ongoing oversight to ensure program is complying with proposed
timeline
– Safe and accessible facility – if not in school, must explain facility and
plans for safe transportation
• Plan for disseminating program information – should be
accessible, timely, understandable, and designed to improve
program interest
• Staff recruitment and training plan
Resource: www.icyd.iowa.gov/iaa/resourcedirectory.html

31. Sustainability
• Realistic and thorough sustainability plan
• Process for identifying elements to sustain, not what to
sustain
• Partners and resources to sustain those elements
• Community support, resources, and contingency plan
• Evidence of ability to conduct comprehensive and rigorous
evaluation
• Plan for monitoring program effectiveness that aligns with 4
Results for Youth
• Plan for internal and external use of evaluation data
Resource: www.financeproject.org

32. Monitoring and Evaluation
• Commitment to participate in PPICS tracking
• Evidence of capacity to track and monitor program outcomes
• Plan for evaluation, including timeline and make results
public
• Measures should align with 4 Results for Youth
• How evaluation results will be used:
– Internally for program improvement
– Externally to build community support
Resources: http://ppics.learningpt.org
http://www.hfrp.org/evaluation

33. The 4 Results for Youth
• All Youth have Safe and Supportive Families, Schools, and
Communities
• All Youth are Healthy and Socially Competent
• All Youth are Successful in School
• All Youth are Prepared for a Productive Adulthood

34. The Abstract
• Should provide a clear, concise description of
proposal
• Include all elements of proposal, most
importantly the programmatic elements
Resource:
www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html

35. Resources
For additional resources and information on quality
afterschool programming, visit our website:
www.iowaafterschoolalliance.org

36. Award Timeline
Letters of Applications
Intent Due Scored 21CCLC
Thursday, Week of Program
February 10, March 14, Orientation
2011 2011 April 2011
Applications Awards
Due Announced
Friday, March Week of
4, 2011 March 21,
2011

37. Contacts
Iowa Department of Education – 21CCLC
Contact the Iowa Chris Fenster
Department of Education chris.fenster@iowa.gov
for all questions related to
515-326-5350
iowagrants.gov and
application clarification.
Iowa Department of Education –
All other questions about iowagrants.gov
the 21CCLC grant program Tena Malone
and award timeline should
tena.malone@iowa.gov
be sent to the Iowa
Afterschool Alliance.
Iowa Afterschool Alliance
Michelle Rich
mrich@sppg.com
515-243-2000