South Carolina

South Carolina Afterschool Alliance

The overall goal of the South Carolina Afterschool Alliance (SCAA) is to establish a statewide network of diverse stakeholders that will guide, support and enable quality after school services and policies for all children and youth. The mission of SCAA is to raise awareness, increase sustainability, and promote the importance of quality afterschool and summer learning programs.

Current Projects and Initiatives: 
  • In partnership with City Year Columbia and Boeing South Carolina, SCAA launched its first STEM Afterschool Demonstration Site. Funded by Boeing South Carolina, the new program serves as a demonstration and training site for statewide afterschool service providers supported by the South Carolina Afterschool Alliance. City Year Columbia, a nonprofit organization that recruits young adults to serve as fulltime tutors, mentors and role models in high-need urban public schools. City Year Columbia will establish a unique program to provide STEM and Literacy support for Richland One students and also serve as a resource center and model of best practices for statewide afterschool programs supported by the SCAA.

  • STEM LInx is a data repository of STEM education programs and resources located in South Carolina created by Clemson University's Center for Workforce Development and Clemson Computing and Information Technology and SC’s Coalition for Mathematics and Science in partnership with SCAA. 

  • Read to Succeed: SCAA will administer and manage a grants process to develop afterschool and summer reading camps to provide additional instructional support to improve student literacy, prevent summer reading loss and engage students in extended hands-on learning experiences.

  • State Priority Schools Summer Incentive Grants: The purpose of this project is to support effective summer enrichment programming utilizing best practices to students attending the lowest performing schools in the state. 

  • Arts Education Task Force: The Arts Education Taskforce convened by the SC Arts Commission to develop strategies to improve arts education for all students. The Taskforce was created to answer the following question, in the current context of 21st Century South Carolina:  “What must South Carolina do to ensure that all of its young people explore, create, learn and grow in and through the arts?”