Othermothering in a Community-Led Afterschool Program

We examine a community-led afterschool program designed by Black women for Black youth from a low-income community through the lens of othermothering. Through interviews and focus groups exploring a multi-year community–university partnership in a large northeastern city, we find that the Black women staff-centered community needs to drive programming activities, provided wraparound supports for families, and created a familial environment within the program. We argue that these practices fostered a culturally relevant afterschool program that was driven by the knowledge and practices of Black women in the community. Supporting minoritized communities to enact their own culturally relevant afterschool programs may lead to the establishment of unique programs that view communities as assets instead of sites of domination.