Client Story

Young people do not just learn and grow in school. Many participate in activities and programs outside of school time that give them the opportunity to explore their interests, make new friends, and learn in a safe and structured environment. Out-of-school time (OST) programs across the nation vary widely in size, programming, and operations, but overall provide a safe, enriching environment for kids and teens while they are not in school.

Research from the Afterschool Alliance has found high-quality OST programs have a significant impact on young people. Young people in high-quality afterschool programs build foundational skills, resulting in decreased disciplinary incidents and risky behaviors, and become more engaged in learning, promoting academic success.

The demand for OST programs is significant: an estimated 30 million parents and guardians nationally want their child to participate in an afterschool program, but 3 in 4 of those children do not have access.

For more than 165 years, Boys & Girls Clubs have delivered high-quality out-of-school time (OST) programming for young people, particularly those who need it most. Over the decades, Clubs have continually adapted and strengthened their services to ensure they have a lasting impact on young people.

To best serve young people, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) needed access to data on their most significant needs, OST programs available to support them, and gaps in access. With over 5,500 local clubs serving more than 4 million young people annually, they also needed a strategy to bring Club leaders together to address these needs collectively and amplify their impact.

In 2019, Transform Consulting Group (TCG) supported BGCA and 31 Indiana Boys & Girls Club organizations to create a first-of-its-kind statewide strategic plan, supported by Lilly Endowment Inc. The success of the Indiana statewide plan prompted BGCA to expand the statewide planning process to four additional states: Arizona, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. 

In 2024, BGCA hired TCG to support this statewide collective impact planning expansion. With input from BGCA and a Steering Committee of Boys & Girls Club CEOs from each state, TCG developed landscape analysis reports and interactive dashboards detailing the needs of young people and the landscape of OST programs in each state. 

Drawing on experience in collective impact planning, TCG partnered with BGCA to analyze the current statewide planning model used in Indiana, tailor the model to fit the state’s specific needs, and pilot statewide collective impact planning in all four states. 

TCG helped facilitate multiple planning sessions with local Club leaders in each state, guiding them through a collaborative process to identify their top collective priorities and key actions they could take together to have a significant impact on those priorities. Club leaders also agreed on clearly defined success measures to track their progress. Combined across all states, this work included over 150 local Club professionals, who engaged in 24 planning sessions and shared feedback through 12 surveys.

Statewide collective impact plans identified several key priorities, including:

• Expanding access to Boys & Girls Clubs
• Developing life and workforce readiness for young people
• Supporting emotional well-being
• Advancing operational excellence and program quality

This planning process culminated in a formal, designed report outlining the data behind youth needs in each state, and the collective impact plan Club leaders in each state developed to address these needs together. This report, which is paired with an executive summary, is a powerful tool to share the state’s plan with key partners and build support.

TCG worked closely with BGCA and local Club leaders in each state throughout the planning process, from the data collection and analysis phase, to the planning process, and to statewide plan report development. 

• TCG gathered community and organizational data to assess the needs of young people in each state, understand the landscape of existing OST programs, and identify the top gaps in services.
• TCG developed written landscape analysis reports detailing the needs of young people and the landscape of OST programs in each state.
• TCG developed interactive dashboards for three of the four states, allowing local Clubs to view data from the landscape analysis at the local level and in greater detail.
• TCG helped develop a statewide collective impact planning approach for BGCA, building on past experience in community-level collective impact planning and prior youth development work.
• TCG helped facilitate 18 planning sessions across 4 states, involving 200 local Club leaders.
• TCG gathered feedback from Club leaders through 15 surveys across the four states, analyzing and sharing survey results to support Club leaders in developing their plan.
• TCG compiled data and research, feedback from local Club leaders, and decisions made throughout the planning process to create a formal, designed statewide collective impact plan report for each state that can be shared with their key partners and guide the implementation process.
• TCG documented the planning process throughout and compiled learnings to inform an updated, replicable planning process that can be used in future states based on the pilot.