Step 01
Employers open doors
The proposed $7,500 annual payment from one employer would fund two school-year after-school seats reserved for children of that business's employees.
Exploratory initiative • Proposed for January 2027 • Not open for enrollment
Help us build M2M After School.
M2M is a proposed after-school program that brings parents back into the heart of their children’s development.
M2M is in the exploratory stage. Every figure and feature shown below is part of the proposed model.
What after-school care taught us
Children need more of their parents—not less.
A program that stops treating parents as peripheral visitors to their children’s development.
What we have learned most from running an after-school program is that children need time with their parents, shared experiences, and adults who are actively engaged in what they are learning and becoming.
Working parents are already carrying a great deal. M2M would provide the structure, developmental programming, and activities created around each child’s interests, strengths, needs, and growth. Parents would help shape the program and participate in meaningful, scheduled ways—without being asked to carry the entire program alone.
Why M2M exists
Family time is developmental infrastructure.
Children do not develop in isolation. Their lives are shaped by relationships at home, parents’ working conditions, economic pressures, caregiver continuity, schools, neighborhoods, and the programs responsible for their care.
Too often, families repeatedly lose time together—and the needs that follow are treated only as service-delivery problems.
What changes when an after-school program stops treating parents as peripheral visitors and begins treating family participation as an essential part of healthy child development?
M2M’s proposed surveys and research would examine family-time constraints, workplace conditions, parent participation, caregiver continuity, child experience, and instructor well-being. These are questions being studied—not outcomes claimed in advance.
Proposed daily schedule
The afternoon begins with a parent.
We’re designing the M2M afternoon to make parent connection part of the child’s day. Before snack or class, the first thing children would do after arriving is call their parents.
First · 15-minute phone call
Connect with a parent
Each child would talk with their parent, sharing their high and their low from the day and telling them which class they are about to attend. These 15 minutes would come before snack.
Next · Snack
Refuel together
After the parent phone call, children would have snack before moving into their selected activity.
Then · Class
Learn and participate
Children would attend the class they just shared with their parent, keeping parents connected to what their child is learning and looking forward to.
This routine is part of the exploratory M2M proposal. We’ll work with families on arrival times and how to support the daily connection when a parent cannot take a call during work.
Proposed family progress connection
Parents would see more than attendance.
If M2M moves forward, participating families would receive a 90-day child-development summary showing attendance, classes taken, observable accomplishments, instructor observations, and the child’s next goal.
The summary would include “What I’m proud of,” “What my family has noticed,” and “What I’ll share at the quarterly expo”—giving parents a clear way to stay connected to what their child is learning and becoming.
This reporting concept is part of the proposed January 2027 model and is not a current enrollment promise.
Step 02
Assistance could widen access
We are exploring how CCAP could become part of the model for eligible families if participation is approved.
Step 03
Caregiving has economic value
Each time a parent or caregiver joins their child for a scheduled M2M afternoon, they would receive a $25 honorarium for that afternoon. The money would be theirs to spend however they like—perhaps ice cream after school with their son or daughter, their favorite pizzas, a new toy, or a piece of clothing.
Step 04
Families build it together
Under the proposed model, parents would come for one afternoon every three weeks to take part in their child’s after-school experience: sharing activities, seeing what their child is learning, and helping build a community together.
A campaign to listen first
Help shape what M2M becomes.
Before finalizing the schedule, transportation, participation structure, or funding, we want to hear directly from the families and organizations this model is meant to serve.
Parents
Tell us your family's schedule, transportation needs, children's birthdates, and what meaningful parent participation could look like.
Tell us what your family needsEmployers
Explore the planning model of a $7,500 annual sponsorship supporting two proposed employee-family seats.
Explore founding sponsorshipCommunity partners
Help strengthen the exploratory pilot through funding, facilities, transportation, programming, or community connections.
Support the explorationWear the M2M mission
M2M T-shirts are $20.
The front carries the M2M open-heart mark. The back says, “Parents belong inside their children’s development.” Each purchase supports the M2M initiative.
Founding-family interest
Tell us what your family needs.
Your answers help Team Ascension test whether M2M should move forward and what the proposed program would need to serve families well.
Sharing interest is not enrollment, does not reserve a seat, and does not commit your family to participate.