The Government of the District of Columbia (the District) is committed to supporting students in preparing for a bright future. In service of that commitment, the District seeks to award and support the equitable distribution of grants to diverse organizations that provide children and youth with high-quality out-of-school time (OST) programming. To make that possible, the Office of Out of School Time Grants and Youth Outcomes (OST Office), located in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME), works with an external grantmaking partner that will award and administer funds on behalf of the OST Office. The OST Office, with guidance from the Commission on Out of School Time Grants and Youth Outcomes (OST Commission), is responsible for deciding the purpose and priorities of each grant competition.
FY24 Summer Strong DC Grant Competition
Open from January 10 to February 28, 2024, the 2024 Summer Strong DC RFA invited high-performing, fiscally responsible, nonprofit organizations that focus on youth development and have a history of success with increasing participants academic knowledge, skills, and behaviors and serve school age children and youth with summer programs to apply. Organizations that applied must serve youth through a positive youth development approach. Organizations may serve children and youth who reside outside the District of the Columbia; however, Summer Strong grant funds may only be applied to children and youth who reside within the District.
For the purposes of the RFA, summer programming was defined as a structured, supervised learning, and youth development opportunity offered to a distinct group of District youth during the summer months for a minimum of 5 hours per day, 5 days a week, for 5 consecutive weeks. The full 2024 Summer Strong RFA can be viewed here. The Summer Strong Scoring Rubric is included here.
FY24 Summer Strong DC Grantees
This year’s Summer Strong DC Grant Competition attracted a diverse pool of applicants from organizations across the District. After a rigorous review process, the following organizations were selected to receive grant funding:
- The Difference Society
- MJT-TV Excel, Inc.
- The Salvation Army
- PLOE Placing Love Over Everything
- Collaborative Solutions for Communities
- Honestly Speaking, Inc.
- Rocketship Public Schools DC
- Special Olympics District of Columbia Inc.
- Friendship Public Charter School
- Angels of Hope Ministries, Inc.
- DC Strings Workshop
- George Washington University
- On-Ramps to Careers
- YMCA of Metropolitan Washington
- SciTech2U Inc
- Generation Teach, Inc.
- KRoussaw Foundation
- Washington Global Public Charter School
Fiscal Year 2024 Grant Competitions Summary
The Office of Out of School Time Grants and Youth Outcomes (OST Office) located in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) thanks all organizations that applied for the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Out of School Time grant competitions, inclusive of School Year 2023-2024 (SY23-24). Altogether, there were 129 submitted applications. The quality of the applications made for a highly competitive process. The number of excellent programs and organizations that applied was impressive and we appreciate and recognize the contributions of every organization for their continued work with children and youth across the District of Columbia. FY24 grant competitions are funded with a combination of local funds and funds transferred from OSSE through Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER III) and local subsidy dollars.
Highlights
- In total, up to $22.1 million will be awarded to 121 organizations that propose to provide services to over 15,000 District of Columbia children and youth during the upcoming grant period.
- Of the total:
- $1,912,476 may be awarded to up to 20 organizations receiving SY23-24 OST grants. These organizations propose to serve approximately 1,725 youth.
- $100,324 may be awarded to up to 3 organizations receiving SY23-24 Small Nonprofit OST grants. These organizations propose to serve approximately 55 youth.
- $16,966,058 may be awarded to up to 81 organizations receiving FY24 Year-Round OST grants. These organizations will provide afterschool programs and summer 2024 camps, and they propose to serve approximately 11,064 youth.
- $800,860 may be awarded to up to 14 organizations receiving FY24 Small Nonprofit Year-Round OST grants. These organizations will provide afterschool programs and summer 2024 camps, and they propose to serve approximately 634 youth.
- $661,500 may be awarded to up to 4 organizations receiving FY24 Coordinating Entity Year-Round OST grants. These organizations will provide afterschool programs and summer 2024 camps, and they propose to serve approximately 655 youth.
- $500,000 may be awarded to up to 1 organization receiving the FY24 STEM Mentorship Year-Round OST grant. The organization will provide afterschool and summer mentoring services, and they propose to serve approximately 100 youth.
- $400,000 may be awarded to up to 1 organization receiving the FY24 Students in the Care of DC Year-Round OST Coordinating Entity grant. The organization will provide out-of-school time and summer programming, and they propose to serve approximately 260 youth.
- $750,000 may be awarded to up to 1 organization receiving the FY24 Scholarships for OST Programs Year-Round grant. The organization will provide scholarships for afterschool programs and summer 2024 camps, and they propose to award scholarships to approximately 200 youth.
- Eleven (11) organizations are new grantees that were not funded in FY23 by the OST Office.
- The OST Office announced the FY24 Out of School Time grant competitions on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, and the FY24 Out of School Time Special Competition grant competitions on Wednesday, May 31, 2023.
Important Considerations:
- Awardees will have 48 hours after school year award notices are made, to communicate their acceptance of the award to the OST Office.
- Once all applicants respond confirming their acceptance or rejection of the grant award, the total number of grantees, total dollar amount of funding awarded, and the number of youth served for each competition will be adjusted as necessary.
View the complete Grant Competition Summary here.
