Grassroots Organizations in Atlanta:

Y.E.E.E.S. (Youth Education Extracurricular Entrepreneur Sponsors)

https://www.yeees.org/

Y.E.E.E.S. is a nonprofit organization that provides opportunities to young children to support them in their transition to adulthood, focusing primarily on lowering the number of loitering youth and repeated crimes in the Metro Atlanta area. They provide low income families with outside of school extracurricular activities centered around fostering entrepreneurship and academic support.

The Lite House, Inc.

https://www.litehousekids.org/about

Lite House was established to create community enrichment centers, providing low income students with access to technology, academic support, and extracurricular activities like sports teams. They found programs at many locations including schools and public libraries that allow kids who normally wouldn’t have access to extra support in their lives to be able to come to a program near them.

Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network

http://www.afterschoolga.org/

Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network is an organization that protects current after school programs, helps emerging programs find their footing, and helps connect parents and students to a program that suits their needs. GSAN focuses on the funding aspects of after school programs, in order to keep extracurricular programs afloat and accessible for low income students.

Grassroots Organizations Outside of Atlanta:

Urban Initiatives (Chicago, IL)

http://www.urbaninitiatives.org/who-we-are/

Urban Initiatives is a program in Chicago that provides youth with a plethora of opportunities to engage in a long-term team. This gives students a chance to be a part of something they really care about, whether it be community service or a soccer team, the things these kids learn through Urban Initiatives has proven to transfer to engagement in the classroom. 

Michigan After-School Partnership (Detroit, MI)

http://www.miafterschool.org/

Michigan After-School Partnership is a statewide network of support for current extracurricular programs, and they maintain this by training leaders to build effective and high quality after school programs. One of their long term goals is to support the development and growth of statewide policies than ensure equal access to after-school programming for all students. 

Afterschool Alliance (Washington D.C.)

http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/

Afterschool Alliance is a national organization with a primary goal of passing legislature ensuring equal access to after-school enrichment programs. They use their platform to educate parents and schools alike as to the significance of extracurricular access, and how they can get involved. This organization is truly trying to organize the public and get people actively participating in their government to push forward change.