Bedford County’s After School program, celebrating its 20^th year in operation in 2021-22, is part of a countywide consortium that provides free after school programming for Bedford County Students under grants through the Pennsylvania Department of Education and cooperative agreements with the county's school districts: Bedford Area, Chestnut Ridge, Everett, Northern Bedford and Tussey Mountain and the HOPE for Hyndman Charter School.

The Bedford County 21st Century Community Learning Centers Consortium, which in addition to the grades 2 to 5 program oversees a secondary program for grades 6-12 called After 3, is the only one of its type in Pennsylvania to provide after school programming countywide among independent school districts, funded over the past 20 years by more than $18 million in competitive grant awards from PDE through the Nita M Lowery 21^st Century Community Learning Centers Program.

The After School Program is the elementary program for students grades 2 to 5 and is being offered at five sites - Bedford Area Elementary School, Chestnut Ridge Middle School, Everett Area Elementary School, Northern Bedford County Elementary School and Tussey Mountain Elementary School.

The consortium is directed by countywide staff, including Co-Project Directors Rick Heath and Lyn Skillington and Assistant Project Director/Technology Integration Specialist Heather Sipes. School administrators along with representatives from community-based organizations meet periodically to oversee the projects.

Since its inception, the consortium has enrolled up to 1200 Bedford County students annually; provided employment for more than 60 full and part-time staff members and provides more than 500 hours of after school and summer programming at each site throughout Bedford County.

For more information about the program or call the Project Director (814) 624-4810 or click on the link above to read more about After School sites and their activities. To learn more about the After 3 program, visit www.after3.org.