Meeting the Out-of-School Needs of Asheville’s Teens

staff reports

In early August, the Listening to Our Teens Network, a community collaboration of 85 service providers and community representatives, adopted the Providence After School Alliance model for meeting the out-of-school needs of all of Asheville’s young teens.

The Listening to Our Teens Network was created in June as a result of a Listening Project, which was commissioned by Mayor Terry Bellamy in response to a rise in gang violence amongst Asheville teens. The Listening Project was coordinated by the Asheville City Schools Foundation. Volunteer listeners interviewed 65 Asheville teens and 40 family members about their experiences and needs inside and outside of school. The Listening Project found that it is likely that more than 500  students from Asheville Middle School and Randolph Learning Center do not have consistent after-school programming throughout the school year.

In the PASA model, a lead agency works directly with students,
parents, schools, and service providers. PASA service providers address
barriers by pooling transportation and designing a single, simple
sign-up sheet. Service providers share a high-quality program standards
and a common assessment tool.

The Network chose PASA because it is a successful community
collaboration that maximizes limited resources, eliminates duplication
of services, and improves communications and data/information sharing.
You can learn much more about PASA, a model currently being adopted by
communities across the nation, by visiting www.mypasa.org.

For a copy of the Listening to Our Teens Project final report, visit www.acsf.org .

For more information contact Asheville City Schools Foundation co-director Kate Pett at (828) 350-6134.