After School Matters (ASM) is a program designed to support at-risk students during their most vulnerable hours, after school. The main objectives of ASM are to:
- Provide constructive after-school programming
- Increase life and employability skills
- Expose and train participants in workplace career skills
- Build family and students’ capacities to make healthy choices
- Provide employment during the summer months
- Increase economic opportunity
- Insuring that students remain academically successful
- Building strong partnerships with parents and employers to sustain success.
ASM helps students stay in school and utilize their after-school hours to build life and job readiness skills. There are three basic phases to the program:
Phase One – During this phase 150 participants and their parents attend an ASM orientation session. Following this session, participants enrolled and began after-school life skills and job readiness training sessions.
Phase Two — Waged career exploration, where participants take career tours and hear directly from industry experts and prospective employers about what’s required to obtain an entry-level position in industries such as childcare, peer-to-peer counseling, sports management and hospitality.
Phase Three – Participants engage in a waged internship experience. ASM internships are designed to give students an opportunity to gain work experience, learn specific workplace skills and earn while learning. Upon completion participants often move into a summer job.
For more information on After School Matters, contact Division Director Ernest Dorsey at 410-396-6722 or edorsey@oedworks.com.
