21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC)

Grants starting at $50,000 per year to Missouri nonprofits, for-profits, schools, school districts, and IHEs for the provision of after-school enrichment programs. Funding will support the establishment or expansion of community learning centers that:

1) Provide opportunities for academic enrichment, including providing tutorial services to help students, particularly students who attend low-performing schools, to meet the challenging State academic standards in at least math, reading, and science (subjects are Missouri specific);

2) Offer students a broad array of additional services, programs, and activities; such as, youth development activities, service learning, nutrition and health education, drug and violence prevention programs, counseling programs, arts, music, physical fitness and wellness programs, technology education programs, financial literacy programs, environmental literacy programs, mathematics, science, career and technical programs, internship or apprenticeship programs, and other ties to an in-demand industry sector or occupation for high school students that are designed to reinforce and complement the regular academic program of participating students; and

3) Offer families of students served by community learning centers, opportunities for active and meaningful engagement in their children’s education, including opportunities for literacy and related educational development.

All three components must be offered at each site (a high school site would NOT be eligible if it only offered homework and/or tutoring and credit recovery as these do not provide all the required programmatic components of 21st CCLC programs).

A center may be composed of one or more sites. Each site occurs at a separate geographic location, but is still part of the total 21st CCLC.

Centers need to provide a range of high-quality services to support student learning and development, including tutoring and mentoring, homework help, academic enrichment (such as hands-on math, reading/language arts, and science, STEM programs), community service opportunities, as well as music, arts, sports, and cultural activities. At the same time, centers help working parents by providing a safe environment for students during non-school hours or periods when school is not in session.

Applicants are encouraged to consider a wide range of school and community-based programs, people, and resources that can be effectively incorporated into the 21st CCLC to help enhance student achievement and youth development. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: student peer tutors, mentors and educators, retired teachers, and other senior citizens qualified to provide educational services, licensed teachers, pupil services, and library services personnel; service-learning and other experiential forms of education; family action teams; and increased use of library facilities.