Bay Area After-School All-Stars Merges With THINK Together
Milpitas, CA (PRWEB) August 27, 2013 -- Beginning this fall, THINK Together, California’s largest nonprofit provider of academic support services, will offer afterschool learning programs to Bay Area students in three local school districts and one charter school network.
THINK Together will assume the operations of programs previously run by the Bay Area After-School All-Stars.
Earlier this summer, the Bay Area After-School All-Stars board announced it was ending its affiliation with the national organization and joining THINK Together, combining forces to provide enhanced benefits to the students and families served in 20 public schools.
THINK Together’s Founder and CEO Randy Barth said because members of both organizations had long admired each other’s efforts in closing the state’s education achievement gap, the opportunity to partner and expand academically oriented extended learning time programs for the Bay Area’s at-risk youth was a win-win.
“I am confident this change will provide students, their families and program staff with the most premier support system possible,” Barth said. “In the process, we will also strengthen our combined financial capacity, resulting in stronger programs, an expansion of the number of students served and long-term sustainability.”
Bill Tamblyn, the board president of the former Bay Area After-School All-Stars agreed.
“The board was seeking ways to grow and reach more students with our popular after school education model,” Tamblyn said. “As we looked to others in our industry, it became clear that THINK Together was the perfect fit for our future needs.”
The schools and communities served by THINK Together’s Bay Area Region will benefit from THINK Together’s extensive data collection and evaluation services. THINK Together’s data-driven approach helps to drive continuous program improvement and documents student outcomes and program impact.
THINK Together will provide academic-based out of school programs in the school districts of San Jose Unified, Newark Unified and Alum Rock as well as the ACE Charter School network.
THINK Together aligns its programs with the core school day curriculum and will help support schools as they implement the new Common Core state standards. In addition, THINK Together will continue to provide STEM education, arts, health, nutrition and sports for the thousands of students in grades K-12 in the South Bay, East Bay and West Contra County where the Bay Area After-School All-Stars formerly provided services.
The news of the partnership has been well received in the Bay Area education and nonprofit community.
“We are thrilled to learn that THINK Together will be partnering with us this fall to provide high-quality, coordinated after school academic programs to our school children,” said Jimmy Lopez, who oversees the afterschool programs in the Alum Rock district. “THINK Together has a great reputation in the extended learning time community and we look forward to working together with them and their academic support team.”
Mara Wold, the Region 5 Lead for the Monterey County Department of Education, welcomed THINK Together to the Bay Area.
“As a reputable organization with over a decade of experience providing results-driven after school and summer programming, THINK Together will bring valuable resources and expertise to our region,” she said. “Current services will be maintained in some of our region's most needy communities. On behalf of all Region 5 expanded learning programs and partners, we look forward to continuing our collaborative relationship.”
THINK Together was formed in 1997 and with this merger will provide afterschool and early learning programs to nearly 140,000 students in more than 440 locations and 41 school districts from San Diego to Sacramento.
The organization’s goal is to provide academic-based instruction afterschool to California’s growing community of underserved children who would otherwise be lacking the 21st Century skills they will need to reach their full potential.
“At THINK Together, we believe that scale, innovative ideas and good management matter when it comes to helping address complex societal problems,” Barth said. “With this new venture in the Bay Area, we can work with our community partners and school districts to change the destinies of entire families.”
About THINK Together
THINK Together is one of the leading and largest nonprofit providers of academic support programs (early literacy, after-school, summer learning, etc.) in the U.S., serving more than 140,000 students across 440-plus locations from San Diego to Sacramento. Partnering with school administrators and teachers, its academically oriented programs and dedicated team of nearly 3,000 employees are helping students close the achievement gap. THINK is an acronym: Teaching, Helping, Inspiring & Nurturing Kids. For more information, call (888) 485-THINK or visit http://www.THINKtogether.org or http://www.facebook.com/THINKtogether.
Kathleen Sanchez, THINK Together, http://www.thinktogether.org/, +1 (714) 543-8807 8163, [email protected]
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