KEY Zone Afterschool Program and its Impact on Parent Involvement

Abstract

This research was conducted to assist the Duluth YMCA’s afterschool program, KEY Zone, in describing and enumerating its current parent involvement. The KEY Zone Program offers afterschool programming to approximately 1000 Duluth children. Sixty percent of those children participate in this program with assistance from federal grant funding. An additional 400 children pay to participate in this afterschool program. With so many children struggling, both nationally and locally, to achieve academic success and to reach graduation, this afterschool program may provide an opportunity to improve skills needed for academic success as well as other life and work skills. Parental involvement is considered by many to be significant if not necessary for children to find success in school. The KEY Zone Program allows for a bridge between the school day and home providing an opportunity for parents to be connected with and involved with school in a variety of ways. This research describes parental involvement as seen by program participants and presents findings and recommendations for further development. The KEY Zone program is positioned to have a significant impact on academic achievement for children of Duluth.