About Afterschool Matters

Through the Afterschool Matters Initiative, the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) offers out-of-school-time (OST) professionals unique opportunities to expand their own research, evaluation, program development, and policy-making skills. The two components of the dynamic Initiative are: National Afterschool Matters (NASM) Fellowship Program, an intensive professional development opportunity for OST professionals and Afterschool Matters Journal--a peer-reviewed journal that is produced semi-annually and highlights the work of OST researchers, NASM Fellows, OST practitioners, and other related professionals.

  • History

    Afterschool Matters began in 2000 as a national, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting professionalism, scholarship, and consciousness in afterschool education. It was published by Susan Ingalls, then executive director of the Foundation for Children and the Classics, and edited by Elaine Lyons, then executive director of Interfaith Neighbors, and funded in part by the Robert Bowne Foundation. NIOST Director Michelle Seligson joined its advisory board that year.

    The Robert Bowne Foundation took over publishing of the second edition in 2003 with Jan Gallagher as editor. In 2007, the foundation awarded more than $2.1 million over five years to NIOST for the National Afterschool Matters Initiative, a broader undertaking to promote research and professional development for the OST industry.

    NIOST thus took ownership of the journal as well as several other projects that the foundation had incubated: a Practitioner Fellowship Program, the Edmund A. Stanley, Jr. Research Grantee program, and Research Roundtables, a forum for connecting research and practice. NIOST Senior Research Scientist Georgia Hall headed the overall initiative and became managing editor of the journal, and Jan Gallagher continued as editor.

    In 2015, NIOST, in partnership with the National Writing Project and funded again by the Robert Bowne Foundation, launched the National Afterschool Matters Fellowship, a two-year professional development and leadership training program for mid-career OST and youth development professionals. The fellowship welcomed its first cohort of participants that year and a second in 2017.

  • Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
  • Contact

    For information on Afterschool Matters Initiative, the National Afterschool Matters (NASM) Fellowship Program and Afterschool Matters Journal, please contact:

    Georgia Hall, Ph.D.
    Director, NIOST
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    For submissions to Afterschool Matters Journal, please contact:
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SUBSCRIBE to afterschool matters journal

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The Afterschool Matters Initiative is managed by the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, a program of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College

Georgia Hall, PhD, is Managing Editor of the Afterschool Matters Journal

Wellesley Centers for Women
Wellesley College
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481-8203 USA

asm@niost.org
781.283.2547

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