Afterschool, Organizational Learning
From Citywide to Neighborhood-Based: Two Decades of Learning, Prioritization, and Strategic Action to Build The Skillman Foundation’s Youth-Development Systems
This article is informed by evaluation reports and memos, interviews, meetings with foundation staff and community stakeholders, foundation documents, research from the field, and a previous article in The Foundation Review about Skillman’s work (Brown, Colombo, & Hughes, 2009). It chronicles the history, challenges, and lessons of Skillman’s commitment to youth-development programs and systems to increase access, quality, and scale to ensure the best results for kids, including the foundation’s 2013 strategic realignment and plans for the next decade.
The Skillman Foundation
The Skillman Foundation is a grantmaking organization established in 1960 by Rose Skillman. We have granted out more than $730 million and have served as a vocal advocate to strengthen K-12 education, afterschool programming, child-centered neighborhoods, youth and community leadership, and racial equity and justice.
We are in the process of developing a new strategic framework, co-designed with Detroit youth and their champions.