For more than 15 years, Case Western Reserve University has led a collaborative academic-community partnership to strengthen the Out-of-School Time (OST) field—creating healthy environments and high-quality programs beyond the school day. Central to this work is the Cuyahoga County Youth Work Initiative (CCYWI), launched in 2008 to build a professional development network that supports youth-serving professionals through training, technical assistance, and capacity-building.

 OST programs are  comprehensive, including provider training and technical assistance, the Adolescent Health Advocate (AHA!) Fellowship for emerging youth leaders, and collaborative programming with community partners. These initiatives are guided by a theory-to-practice model and emphasize both evidence-based methods and innovative, promising practices.

All programming is grounded in continuous evaluation and improvement, ensuring alignment with the needs of practitioners and the communities they serve.