By design, programming at EAKC is delivered at no cost to youth from low-to-moderate income households as defined by the thresholds in the table below.

For families who do not fall below the household income thresholds defined below, we charge $50/week for a single child with a multi-child discount of $5/youth when enrolling multiple youth (e.g., a family enrolling three youth would pay $50, $45, and $40 for their children). For the 26/27 SY we are also offering half-time (2 days per week) options at $25/week.

We are able to invoice weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, and we are happy to work with families to ensure invoicing is compliant with any needs they might have for qualifying childcare cost reimbursement through their employers.

A small share of paying after school attendees helps keep our no-cost programming sustainable for all of our community’s youth, and we appreciate your support! We ask folks to self-report income and household size during enrollment.

EAKC aligns with the Atlanta Public Schools Academic Calendar. We are closed when they are closed, and we are open when they are open.

The first day of After School is Tuesday, August 4, 2025.

Kids Club (grades K-5) is in session Monday – Thursday, 2:30pm – 6:30pm. Teen Club (grades 6-12) is in session Tuesday-Thursday, 5:00pm – 7:00pm.

EAKC does not deliver After School programming on Fridays. We conduct food security programming on Fridays and reset the Brownwood Recreation Center for weekend rentals and events.

Yes, limited transportation support is provided through two fifteen-passenger vans driven by EAKC staff. Currently, we service Burgess-Peterson, Toomer, Parkside, and Benteen within APS, and we service Obama and McNair ES within DCSD. Transportation support is provided on a first come, first served basis based on a combination of need, enrollment at one of these schools, and reasonable proximity to EAKC. That is, if a child attends one of our schools and resides further afield (e.g. SW Atlanta), we may not be able to consider transportation support. As you enroll your youth, you can indicate need for transportation support, and our Program team will confirm availability as they reach out to confirm enrollment.

EAKC delivers programming through our own staff and through a robust portfolio of program partnerships. In the last few years, these opportunities have included:

Black Kid Art: art and art history programming provided by BKA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing visibility in the arts through outreach in Black communities. This Spelman-led program also provides strong near-peer mentorship for our youth and visibility into the HBCU college experience.

Emory SCICOVERY: SCICOVERY is driven by a group of dedicated undergraduate students at Emory University who create free STEM educational resources with engaging experimental activities for kids at the community centers where we visit. SCICOVERY implements lessons to encourage youth in their development of scientific knowledge and appreciation.

Kidz & Tennis Rule Community Tennis Association, Inc.: We enrich children’s lives through tennis by blending skill-building with social-emotional learning. Our program promotes emotional regulation, self-awareness, and teamwork – developing confident, resilient kids on and off the court. With a focus on fun, fitness, and friendship, we lay the foundation for lifelong wellness and love of the game. Coach Daisha proudly serves as the Head Coach for Women’s Tennis at Clark Atlanta University. She is a seasoned mentor with nearly two decades of experience in teaching both the game of tennis and invaluable life skills to youth.

Basketball with Coach Mosquito: Coach Mosquito (DeAndre Bray) has experience playing at the collegiate and professional level, and he is a recent inductee into the UBA Hall of Fame. For three years, he has used basketball as a vehicle to support the ongoing development of wellness, teamwork, discipline, and confidence for our kids and teens.

Kidz Corner Podcast: this program, led by EAKC Program Manager, Dannie Erwin, empowers Teen Club members to learn the ins and outs of podcasting, from researching guests, to creating interview questions, to conducting the interview, and more. Now in it’s third year, Kidz Corner Podcast has released twenty episodes, and guests have included political leaders such as Councilmember Bakhtiari, music producers and artists like Sonny Digital, artists/muralists like Austin Blue and Drew Borders, business leaders like Caden Harris and David Walker, and more! 

These are just examples of the kinds of programs and partnerships we have lifted up over the last year, and we are always looking for additional programs and partners to keep our kids and teens happy, healthy, and hopeful for what’s possible!

Our vans only pick up from BPA, Toomer, Parkside, Benteen, Obama (DeKalb), and McNair ES, but we welcome car riders from all area schools.  Historically, our strongest feeders are within the Maynard Jackson Cluster within APS and within nearby DeKalb County schools.

No, dinner is not provided, but each child is offered a snack upon arrival. Typically, our snack selection includes a combination of pre-packaged items including but not limited to the following: chips, granola bars, fruit cups, pouches, pressed fruit bars, crackers, and other light snack fare. We do not have a kitchen facility compatible with preparation of warm meals, but our staff do have ServSafe Food Handler certifications and at least one staff-member has ServSafe Food Banking certification at all times. If your child has known food allergies or special needs, we are happy to work with you to ensure they are met and that their safety is prioritized.

Our staff have a diverse range of experiences having served in childcare, K-12, collegiate, and workforce development backgrounds prior to joining EAKC. Key staff bios are listed at the bottom of this section, but the following is true for all staff:

Staff complete criminal background checks, MVR checks, and reference checks during the hiring process. All youth-facing staff have current CPR & First Aid training through the American Red Cross, and all complete Mandated Reporter training annually. Staff have professional development opportunities which have included but not been limited to best practices in trauma informed care, conflict resolution, positive youth development, and more.

Most of our part-time afterschool instructors and summer camp counselors come to us as Alumni of another local nonprofit, Leap Year, where they spend a year serving as reading coaches for 20 hours per week in local APS schools. During their program year, the Leap Year Fellows spend the other 20 hours each week focused on their own college readiness, taking classes at Georgia State University and engaging in academic and career readiness workshops and mentorship. We have partnered with Leap Year since 2022 to build a talent pipeline of Opportunity Youth who can serve as near-peer mentors for our youth while they also pursue their own educational and career outcomes as first-generation students.

Our permanent staff include:

Ryan Downey, Executive Director: Ryan joined EAKC in 2020, following 9 years of Program experience at Year Up United, holding roles including Business Communications Instructor, Program Manager, Director of Recruitment & Admissions, and Regional Director of Enrollment. Prior to Year Up United, he taught within the City Colleges of Chicago, St. Augustine College (Chicago), Concordia University (Chicago), The Poetry Center of Chicago, South Bend Juvenile Justice Center, and the South Bend Center for the Homeless. A first-generation college graduate himself, he holds degrees from University of Georgia, University of Notre Dame, and Kansas State University. Presently, he serves as a GO Team member at Parkside (having completed a two-year term as a GO Team member at BPA), Board Member of the East Atlanta Business Association, and Board Member of Atlanta Kookaburras Australian Rules Football Club. A southeast Atlanta neighbor, he lives in Ormewood Park with his wife and two young children (who will eventually attend Parkside and are frequent visitors to Brownwood Park and EAKC).

Danielle “Dannie” Erwin, Program Manager: Dannie joined EAKC in 2021 with a background in youth development, early childhood education, and customer service spanning the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. A graduate of Community College of Philadelphia (and a proud Philadelphia native), Dannie has long been involved in working with youth, with a focus on Teen Club-aged youth, through her passion for filmmaking and other creative industries. She is also a podcaster and an apparel maker/designer. She is the driving force behind the resurgence of our Teen Club programming, including our multiyear partnerships with Tech Corps and AppleBox Productions – the latter of which culminates in a film premiere at The Plaza Theatre each year.

Sabrina Alexander, Program Assistant & Driver: Our most tenured EAKC employee, Sabrina joined EAKC in 2017, following 17 years of service as a school bus operator for Atlanta Public Schools and Fulton County Schools. She has a long history of transporting children safely through her service to these school systems and her nearly 8 years here at EAKC, and as a Program Assistant, she also works to support operational needs such as logging volunteer hours, supporting enrollment documentation, and working alongside the program team to support youth throughout the after school and summer camp day. An Atlanta native and graduate of Booker T. Washington High School and Georgia Piedmont Technical College, Sabrina is also an CDL holder and takes pride in supporting our kids and families with their transportation needs. Sabrina is also a dedicated mother and grandmother who commits much of her personal time to caring for family.

Yes! We have a long history of serving youth who arrive at EAKC with IEPs, and occasionally, we have students who join us with the more intensive support of an ABA therapist. Our priority is to serve all youth and families equitably and within the scope of reasonable accomodations. If we find that our capacity is insufficient to meet a child’s needs, we will seek to work with the parent to identify the appropriate resources so that the child may remain in our programming. At all times, we will ensure that we have the right ratio of staff to youth, and in instances where a child requires 1:1 staffing or a similarly intensive amount of support, we will recommend that approach and partner with the family to secure outside resources as they are available.

Our facility is largely ADA accessible (though, the bathroom stalls are tight for larger chairs, and some doors require more force than is ideal for all users). If an issue arises with regards to accessibility, we seek solutions alongside the City of Atlanta (our landlord) and the families whom we serve.

For after school, enrollment is conducted on a rolling basis year-round. If we reach capacity, we will inform parents that their child has been placed on a waitlist and will continue to be in touch as we anticipate spaces opening. We often have spaces to accept more students year-round, and the primary constrain that families face is that our transportation support fills within hours of enrollment opening each year. When you submit an application, you should expect to hear from an EAKC staff-member within 2 business days (we are in the office M-F with a separate staff-member managing the facility on the weekend). Often, Dannie, our Program Manager, will call to ensure there is no need for clarification and to follow-up with next steps. After school enrollment is pretty fluid, and our goal is keep our program at full enrollment as empty seats don’t serve anyone – and we are in the business of serving the community as efficiently as possible.

Of course! We are not just an after school program. We offer after school, summer camp, counseling, food security support, and community engagement programming.

We are entering our third year of partnership with Root & Blossom Counseling, and we are keen to support youth who are in need of individual therapy at no cost to families through our generous funding support from the LuluMa Foundation.

Similarly, support from The Imlay Foundation maintains our weekly food security programming that was largely carried since 2020 through support from the Atlanta Falcons Youth Development Fund (part of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation).

In fact, it’s worth naming the host of family foundations and corporate supporters who have stood behind this work in 2024/2025 (noting that hundreds of individual donors have also contributed to our sustainability).

Foundations: AEC Trust, Atlanta Foundation, Choate Bridges Foundation, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Cousins Foundations, Harland Charitable Foundation, Jack and Anne Glenn Foundation, LuluMa Foundation, Mary Brown Fund of Atlanta, Sartain Lanier Family Foundation, The Homestead Foundation, The Imlay Foundation, The Lookout Foundation, The Zeist Foundation

Corporate: Aldi Impact Grant, Appfire Town, Atlanta Gas Light Foundation, Link Logistics Community Grant, Nike Community Impact Fund, Salesforce Foundation, State Farm

These folks stand with us because they know that we are delivering impact and growing our programs sustainably and with community voice centered as we do so. We are grateful for their support, and we hope that other folks will continue to rally around us as we celebrate 27 years of service to southeast Atlanta!

Please see the button below this FAQ to submit an application!