Boston Centers for Youth & Families
BOSTONavigator Connects the Dots
Maria is 14 and can’t convince her parents to let her do anything after school because they don’t trust her to be anywhere but home. She tries to explain that all her friends go to this really cool program where they learn about music and there’s this really great teacher there who teaches the girls about respect and commitment and all kinds of good stuff. But her mother doesn’t trust that it’s safe and she wants her to do her homework.Marie finds out that the program is listed on this website, BOSTONavigator.org and shows it to her mother and father. When they look up the program they are able to read in Spanish a description of the program. They are happy to learn that it is in their neighborhood, it is only for girls, and they do homework first and then expressive arts activities. Maria’s parents are able get the phone number from the website and talk with the Executive Director for a long time. Finally they agree that this would be a better place for Maria to spend her time when they are at work. Maria is elated!
BOSTONavigator is an online database developed by Boston After School & Beyond (Boston Beyond) in collaboration with the City of Boston and BOSTnet, has compiled a comprehensive listing of all out-of-school time programs throughout the city. Through the website, providers and parents are able to search for services according to the children’s age, zip code, and program’s focus. Each listing links to a detailed description of that service, complete contact information, staffing, schedule, and other relevant information. In this way, parents and providers can efficiently identify programs tailored to children’s interests.
"We are very excited about this new resource that will make out-of-school time information more accessible for parents and give them access to information about hundreds of programs in one place," said Diane Joyce, director of programming at Boston Centers for Youth & Families (BCYF).
BCYF operates 46 centers for children and youth throughout the city. The range of programming includes licensed childcare, tutoring and homework help, sports and recreation, arts enrichment, leadership and life skills development. With such a breadth of programs, informing parents about the many existing options has been challenging. "Getting up-to-date and complete program information into the hands of counselors, mentors, and other intermediaries who help young people find the right opportunities will help streamline that process," Joyce explained. All of BCYF’s supervised programs for children and youth can now be found in BOSTONavigator and they are committed to keeping this information up-to-date.
By facilitating access to out-of-school programs, BOSTONavigator will ensure a higher level of enrollment. "Without a single database, many of our sites produce their own brochures and schedules that have a limited distribution. Now [our centers] will have great reach," Joyce enthusiastically added.
In addition to the exciting benefits for both providers and families, BOSTONavigator will invariably assist funders and civic leaders to discover program gaps. According to Joyce, "the tool will offer real-time web-based data to use as we look to identify service gaps, design new programming, and modify existing offerings." BOSTONavigator promises to connect the disparate dots of out-of-school time programs across the city. With these resources charted, both providers and families will be able to access opportunities that youth need to meet their full potential.