Prioritizing Partnerships and Embracing Change: The Growth and Development of the Denver Afterschool Alliance. A Case Study of the Denver Afterschool Alliance

The Denver Afterschool Alliance (DAA) is a community collaborative whose mission is to increase access to and participation in quality afterschool programs to keep Denver's youth safe, inspire them to learn and prepare them for the future. It represents a collaboration of many stakeholders, including the City and County of Denver, many community-based and funder organizations, and the Denver Public Schools. With its collaborative roots dating back to the early 1990's, the Alliance formally launched in 2012 and is now recognized as a national model for multi-sector partnerships, proponents of quality in action, and robust evaluation efforts of targeted programs. This case study describes the roots and iterations of DAA and offer a set of lessons learned for other communities embarking on a similar journey of developing a coordinated approach to improving access to quality afterschool and summer learning programs. [The Denver Afterschool Alliance engaged the Forum for Youth Investment to develop this case study.]