December 2004

Parents and others caring for children in Philadelphia now have easy access to information about after-school programs in their neighborhoods, thanks to a new Online After School and Child Care Program Finder. Philadelphia Safe and Sound developed the interactive search tool in cooperation with after-school providers and funding from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Wachovia Bank.

The website is a comprehensive online directory that features programs serving infants and toddlers to older youth and young adults. The website lists more than 140 programs that serve children under the age of one and over 120 programs that serve youth and young adults over the age of 18. “This design is based on the concept of addressing the continuum of children and youth development in a systemic approach,” says Jo Ann Lawer, CEO and President of Safe and Sound.

“Selecting a child care or after-school program is an important decision for parents,” says Lawer. “Thousands of Philadelphia’s parents must decide about the care of their small children while they’re working and others must decide what their school-age children will do when the school day ends. Safe and Sound wants to give parents more options and resources for making the best choices for their children.”

The Online Program Finder is a comprehensive directory containing key information about 500 public and private after-school and child care programs located throughout the city. Listed programs include those from:

• the Department of Recreation,
   
• the Department of Public Welfare,
   
• the School District of Philadelphia,
   
• the After School Activities Partnership (ASAP),
   
• Philadelphia Youth Network and
   
• Safe and Sound’s Children’s Investment Strategy and Beacon Programs.

The Program Finder is available through Safe and Sound’s website, www.philasafesound.org. Parents and caregivers can search by address and find programs within a certain distance of their home, work or child’s school. It also includes an interactive map that shows the street location of after-school or child care programs in a specified vicinity. Searches conducted through the Program Finder results in an assortment of information about individual programs such as address, phone number, fees, hours, activities and participating age groups.

To compile the directory and to assure accuracy while avoiding duplication, Safe and Sound identified all the resources currently available and conducted a survey of each of the child care, after-school and youth development programs.

Some of the future enhancements of the Program Finder are:

• The addition of more programs, including those from the Department of Human Services, museums and Philadelphia’s art community.
   
• A new phase of technology that will allow additional search criteria, such as searching by school or specific program. Although the audiences for the Program Finder are parents, caseworkers and other caregivers, as well as children and youth themselves, the added features will appeal to policymakers, researchers and academicians.
   
• A new telephone number is dedicated to receiving questions and requests from parents and caregivers who do not have access to the Internet. The Program Finder number is 215-568-0737.

(For more information on this website about Philadelphia Safe and Sound, click here.  For more articles on this website about after-school programming, click here.)