Out-of-School Time

Our Excel Beyond the Bell (EBB) Collaborative is a public-private partnership created by the Collaboration Council to inspire our youth to realize their full potential by offering safe, quality and accessible out-of-school time programs.

Starting a new year of Excel Beyond the Bell – Fall 2022

Overview of Excel Beyond the Bell

Together with the Montgomery County Recreation Department and Montgomery County Public Schools, we offer the EBB Middle School Program at eight schools while striving to increase positive outcomes for youth across the county by creating and supporting a high-quality after school workforce.

To learn more, visit the ExcelBeyondtheBell.org

Montgomery County Community Youth Support & Engagement (MoCoCYSE)

In response to widespread pandemic-related disconnection from in-person out-of-school-time engagements and to a call for an increase in social-emotional supports for Montgomery County’s middle- and high-school youth, the Montgomery County Council appropriated fiscal year 2021 Q4 & fiscal year 2022 Q1 funding to the Collaboration Council to support the following:

Identification of local assets to support the needs of County youth for spring and summer 2021
Promoting and expanding affordable OST program supports during the pandemic in geographically strategic manner

MoCoCYSE providers leveraged Collaboration Council funds to attract matching/additional investments from other philanthropic sources, and many intend to identify long-term funding sources and sustainable space partnerships. Many reflected that summer partnerships coordinated by the Collaboration Council allowed for their highest youth engagement totals and rates to date. Sixty-five percent of MoCoCYSE provider organizations represent minority-owned small businesses.

Youth Sports Initiative (YSI)

In a March 2020 report, Montgomery County’s Office of Legislative Oversight recommended that County Council promote programming that ensures:

Access to public athletic facilities
Promoting and expanding affordable and recreational youth sports programs

YSI providers pivoted to safely provide service during the pandemic, including hybrid / virtual / in-person models, reduced group sizes and enrollments, and program locations closer to participating youth’s communities.

Watch a short video about the Youth Sports Initiative

To learn more, download our one-page overview of MoCoCYSE and YSI (PDF) or click on the images below to view the front & back of the overview on screen.

For both MoCoCYSE and YSI, the Collaboration Council managed the solicitation, procurement, selection, contracting, granting, program administration, and program quality monitoring. We coordinated space and service agreements in partnership with the Montgomery County Recreation Department (for both programs), MCPS (for MoCoCYSE) and the Office of Community Use of Pubic Facilities on behalf of YSI contract awardees.