Tips for Afterschool Enrichment Coordinators: How to Plan a Great Semester for Afterschool Programs
In order to plan great afterschool programs, you need to start with foundational planning. This type of planning outlines the semester-long schedule, programming days, and format of each programming day. Essentially, building an intentional and consistent schedule for programming is a key to having a successful semester.
Making the Semester-Long Schedule
I highly recommend filling out a semester-long calendar before you even plan your programming days and times. We did this in Bennington at the start of each semester. In the office, we had a giant, laminated 12-month calendar (see below). We would pull up the calendar for the local school district and our partner college, then input all of the events onto our laminated calendar. This is a great way to visualize all of the potential conflicts for programming, and I will touch more on this later.
While it is obvious to not run programming on holiday breaks, you may also want to consider the events hosted by both the local school district and your partner college. For school district events, think about which events will create programming conflicts for families. For example, it may not be wise to have programming on the weekday that parent-teacher conferences are usually held. For college events, it is best to consider which events will create major mentor conflicts. While we want all of our mentors to be committed to DREAM, we also don’t want it to restrict them from participating in their college’s culture. So, if there is a campus-wide event that conflicts with programming, you may want to cancel programming that day so that your mentors can participate.
You can also use your 12 month calendar as a guide when choosing your programming format. I recommend choosing one format and sticking to it for the entire semester, with the exception of field trips. You can break programming time down into two shorter blocks, one for regular enrichment and one for specialized programming (academic, teens, etc.). But, if you choose to do this, you should ensure that this schedule remains the same each week. Building a consistent schedule will help both mentors and mentees show up to programming prepared, regulated, and ready for fun!
Choosing a Good Day for Afterschool Programs
How many programming days you have each week differs greatly from region to region. Some regions combine their programming sites and only have one day of programming per week, while other regions have programming five days a week at every programming site. In Bennington, we had one day of programming a week for each site, with some additional programming days for specific events, field trips, or workshops.
When planning our weekly programming day for each site, I considered a few key things:
What day of the week are the most mentors available?
What day of the week has the least amount of conflicts? (e.g. school or college events, holidays, etc.)
What day(s) of the week present the most behavioral challenges?
It is important to ask yourself all of these questions for your specific programming site. Sometimes, certain mentors will only serve in one site within the region. So, for those mentors, you need to do your best to pick a programming day for their specific site that does not conflict with their schedule.
When you make your 12-month calendar, you will notice recurring conflicts. For example, our local school district tended to have half days on Wednesdays. We did a few things with this information. During the school year, we avoided having programming on Wednesdays, as our mentees liked to come directly from school. So, having programming on another day of the week provided a more consistent schedule for our mentees. However, during winter programming, our mentors had more time to dedicate to DREAM, so we would have programming on Wednesdays and take our mentees on longer field trips.
Another piece to consider is conflicts that the majority of your mentors have, which would make the mentor-mentee ratio too low for programming. For example, if more than half of your mentors are on a specific sport team, it would not be wise to host programming on their game day.
The groups of mentees at certain sites might have higher behavioral challenges on different days of the week. For one of our sites in Bennington, we decided to change Friday programming to Wednesdays, because the mentees were cranky by the end of the week and that led to more behavioral challenges and a generally less enjoyable experience for our mentees. At another site, our mentees had trouble on Wednesdays, as the mid-week hump hit them particularly hard. It is important to get to know the mentees at your site well so that you can recognize these patterns and plan accordingly. And, as always, if you need input on this, ask your mentors!
Some sites offer a replacement day of programming if they have to cancel for an event, holiday, or inclement weather. While I generally recommend offering your mentees the most time at DREAM as possible, use your discretion when planning make-up days. For my site, these didn’t really work, as it messed with our mentee’s routine. Having make-up programming often resulted in less enjoyable programming for our mentees, so we decided to stop offering make-up days. That said, some sites have no issue with make-up days—their mentees can even be particularly excited about them! Trust your gut and do what is best for your site.
Incorporating Specialized Programming
If you have a small number of sites in your region, who only have programming once a week, you might have extra days where you can schedule pop-up or specialized programming. Pop-up programming usually consists of a specific workshop that mentor(s) lead in a specific skill. These can be weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly. Some examples of pop-up programming we did in Bennington include: cooking creations, a creative writing workshop, and a life skills workshop. Specialized programming is usually weekly and focuses on a specific type of activity or on a specific age group of mentees. Some examples of specialized programming in Bennington include: academic support, tennis (with a local coach), and teen nights. Academic support was typically offered on-site before enrichment programming, while teen nights were typically offered on-site after enrichment programming. Tennis, on the other hand, was offered off-site and on a separate programming day.
Offering pop-up and specialized programming is entirely up to your site. Some sites offer multiple weekly pop-ups/specialized programming days, while other sites don’t offer any. It takes additional mentor commitment and access to your programming space to host these kinds of programming, so you must consider those pieces before planning these types of programming. That said, pop-ups and specialized programming can be a great way for mentors to share their specialized skills and interests, as well as gain leadership and instructional experience. So, if this type of programming is feasible for your site, I recommend talking to your mentors about it and seeing if anyone has ideas!
Communicating Schedules with Families
I recommend giving families a programming calendar each month. For some sites, families prefer to use digital communications, such as a text chain, weekly email, or even a site-specific website. For my site, many families did not have access to the internet at home, so all of our communications were paper-only. My Youth Service Manager and I would use this template to create a programming calendar each month. Here is an example of a programming calendar from spring 2026. I would print out the calendars and write each family’s name on them. Then, our mentors would hand them out at pick-up and drop-off, taping them on families’ doors if they weren’t home.
Quick Tip!
If your college offers free printing to students, I recommend using the college’s printers to print calendars, flyers, and other paper communications for DREAM, as it will save you a lot in your programming budget!
These calendars made sure that mentors, mentees, and families all knew when and where programming was happening. Honestly, these calendars were one of our most crucial systems for running successful programming—they made such a difference!
It is important to use a method of communication that works best for the community you are serving. I recommend taking note of how families tend to manage communications from their children’s schools or the housing authority, as they have likely trialed and errored a few communication systems and settled on the most effective ones.
Why you Should Plan Ahead
Foundational planning sets you up for semester-long success! Choosing the right programming day, schedule, and format will allow for mentors and mentees to thrive each week. You can also offer additional programming options, such as pop-ups and specialized programming. I recommend meeting with your Director or Youth Service Manager prior to the start of the semester to discuss what schedule and programming options would be best for your site. Following this, you can meet with your mentor team to gain insight on their schedules and desires for programming.
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