Aspire’s 2024-2025 Program Year Results

This has been a year of growth, impact, and resiliency for Aspire. We celebrated the organization’s 30th anniversary and finished our three-year strategic plan (July 2022 – June 2025), having met all goals outlined in the plan. We continued to build upon the long-standing work and partnerships that Aspire has established in the Arlington community.

In September, Aspire opened two additional classrooms at Title 1 elementary schools in South Arlington (one classroom at Randolph Elementary and one at Drew Elementary) with support from new Virginia state funding. These new sites are a big deal: they are a testament to Aspire’s impact and innovation, and they are already making a critical difference for students. As a result, we served more students this year than ever before. We also completed the build-out of a new Makerspace, which will allow us to expand our STEM programming and partnerships.

Unfortunately, Aspire was one of 1,000 organizations nationwide to have our AmeriCorps funding cut in April, and we were required to cease all AmeriCorps programming immediately. While this has been an incredibly challenging time, we quickly pivoted programmatically, designed and implemented an effective fundraising and communications plan, and harnessed the energy and support of over 300 community partners, funders/donors, Aspire parents, former AmeriCorps members, local businesses, community leaders, and media partners to build awareness, raise funds, and support our families. This is a true testament to the role Aspire plays as a pillar of the Arlington community. 

Driven by a deep commitment to these students, our AmeriCorps members willingly returned as volunteers for several days to keep the classrooms open and continue serving students and families. We only had to close program for three days as our leadership team finalized a plan to bring back 15 of our 17 former AmeriCorps members on part-time, temporary contracts and pivot to an interim program staffing model. We kept our afterschool program running at full capacity through the end of the school year, and served our planned 140 students through our summer programming. Looking ahead, we are still raising funds to fill the AmeriCorps cuts and are determining if we will need to reduce the number of students we serve for the 2025-2026 school year. 

Aspire is a hands-on, direct service, grassroots organization with strong ties to our community. We are proud of our growth and impact over the past year, and are grateful for our partners and supporters. Even during these challenging times, we remain deeply committed to children and families in Arlington.

To learn more about Aspire’s work and our students’ accomplishments over the 2024-2025 program year, check out our full report and a two-page summary.