School: After Hours

S4 EP 13: The Entrepreneurship Series: Keeping The Lights On feat. Darye Henry

• Season 4 • Episode 13

Share episode

In this episode, our guest Darye Henry discusses after-school programming from an entrepreneur's perspective. Darye shares his experience of watching his mom start an after-school program and how his involvement prepared him for his role as a CEO and Founder of After School HQ. We dive into the challenges of attracting and retaining students, maximizing effectiveness, and reporting impact to funders. Daria also highlights the importance of storytelling and finding a co-founder or partner with the same passion and energy.   Tune in to equip yourself with the necessary tools and tips that will help your program flourish. 

Guest Bio:

Darye Henry, Co-founder and CEO of AfterSchool HQ, has dedicated his life to fostering youth development. After experiencing burnout from being overextended as a program provider, he created AfterSchool HQ to empower youth program providers with tools to manage and expand their organizations efficiently. Previously, Darye served 8 years as Chairman of the Felege Hiywot Center, a youth-led urban farm championing leadership and STEM education.

A Purdue University alumnus, Darye's commitment to mentoring has spanned over 6 years in youth ministry, and he continues this noble endeavor today. Beyond his professional pursuits, he cherishes his family life, celebrating two decades of marriage and being a devoted father to three children.

Resource(s)
 Afterschool HQ Website - https://go.afterschoolhq.com/

Connect With Us

Website: www.schoolafterhours.net
Newsletter: Afterschool Culture
Facebook - @schoolafterhours
Instagram - @schoolafterhours
LinkedIn - school-after-hours-podcast

Darye:

How are you going to find the organization or locations you partner with? And then sometimes you know in the viewer you're wondering can we keep the lights on? You know that's a standard. That was an ongoing interview or question Can we do this another year? And so I think that really showed me the experience One of I could see my mom being very passionate about it, like she's going to do it no matter what. But then on the flip side, how do you really help not only people who are like her, which is pretty much everyone in after school programs, but who are really trying to make an impact, and so how do we invest in them? How do we make it easier so that they don't burn out?

J. Lee:

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to School After Artists podcast, where we talk about all things related to after school time programming and education. I am your host, jay Lee, and today we are going to talk about after school programming from an entrepreneur's point of view. Our guest for this episode was shared with us his experience of watching his mom start her own after school program and how it prepared him for his role as a CEO and founder. Joining us today is Mr Darjeh Henry, the CEO and founder of After School HQ, a platform designed to empower youth program providers with the tools and resources they need to efficiently manage and expand their organizations. In this episode we'll talk about the challenges of starting a new after school program, why he created After School HQ and how he convinced school districts to try his After School HQ platform to capture their after school program data. But before we get into all the juicy details, let's go ahead and jump into our community corner.

J. Lee:

Community Corner is a segment of the show that allows guests on myself to share tips, advice or information on a specific topic with young people, families or community members. Without further ado, let's go ahead and get into our community corner conversation. All right, everybody, we've made it to our community corner section of the show. So this is where we go ahead and ask questions that you know the community may have, but also parents may have as well, to give you some background information. So, with that being said, daria, I have this question for you. So my question is why is data collection important in after school programming, but also what type of data should be collected from families and why?

Darye:

Yeah, that's a really good question. I think in give a little background. Sometimes it's like, hey, I'm doing the work, isn't that enough? Like I'm clearly making an impact, right. But when you think about data collection, it really comes down to measuring the return on investment and not to make that just a pure financial question. But the question is are you making an impact on the students that you're working with and how do you measure that? And so data collection can be quantitative and qualitative, and so quantitative, you'll want and diving into some of the details of information you want.

Darye:

If I'm a foundation and I said, hey, here's $50,000 to do whatever it may be, I'd be interested like who are the young people?

Darye:

Right?

Darye:

Who are they? Where are they from, what zip codes, what is you know their income levels of their families? What grades are they getting in school? And so when you think about measuring all that, at the end of the day your organization could be responsible for a thousand students getting 50,000 hours of education and science, which could produce maybe 500 students who end up going to college for STEM related programs or majors or careers or whatever it may be right. And so having that data, it's just like credentials, it's like saying I got this degree, I did this.

Darye:

This area of work that we're doing is underappreciated, and when you have data to say I've done all of this, I have all these students who have done this who said they weren't going to college.

Darye:

Now they are going to college. That's important not just for the impact that you're making, but it's important for the story you're telling, when you get to tell these organizations how much you're really doing, because you don't want to be overlooked. The truth is, you know, out of school time, organizations are overlooked way too much and they're like, they're a backbone for our education system, right, so that's why it's so important. So there's quantitative, but there's also qualitative information, like students say they love this organization and give you feedback in that regard. Or this student it was the first time they went to the zoo, or on a field trip to this museum, or out of town, like those are very important experiences to track and understand, and so there's both sides of it. But ultimately, what it does, again, you're telling the story of what is happening in your area, in your community, and what you're doing, and that helps you get more funding at the end of the day, especially when you have and organizations give you large sums of money like they want to see these receipts.

J. Lee:

They want to see what you did, yeah.

Darye:

Well, and let's be real too they get donors too, who donate to some of these, you know funds as well, and they want to see their stories, and so sometimes they have to go tell your story to other people to get money in the door. So, yeah, it's the way it works as part of the process, but it's a good thing to do for sure.

J. Lee:

Right, right, very true. Well, thank you for sharing with us, daria, and we're going to go ahead and jump into our main interview. Hello, mr Henry, how are you?

Darye:

Doing good. How are you doing?

J. Lee:

I'm doing all right. So thank you for being here today on the show. I'm so happy to have you because we're gonna be diving into some things as far as app school programming goes, but from a more of an entrepreneur perspective. But you also have an experience of being in Afterschool programming because you started out this process with your mom, who did her own afterschool programming. So I know that leads into a whole bunch of different things. So I'm gonna give you the floor because I don't know the details to go ahead and tell all the juicy stuff in the story, but go ahead and give us you know. Just start off with your credentials and let the people know who you are and what you do.

Darye:

Yeah, for sure. Thank you for having me for one. So yeah, my name is Daria Henry. I'm co-founder and CEO of afterschool HQ really a platform. Our goal is to help youth program providers run their organizations, so typically dealing with the stress of a lot of work to do and not a lot of support. So that's really what our software does and our team really works to do.

Darye:

My background really there's a few things Did a lot in afterschool programs, like participated in them a lot growing up, but then also ran some afterschool programs. Was chairman of the board of now a much larger organization that that's grown a lot, which was actually ran by my mom. She still runs it, so did a lot with that. I've also an entrepreneur, so I started Initially during that time. Early like 2008, I started my first organization, which really is a software consulting firm. So I spent a lot of time solving problems for businesses and other Entrepreneurs and that's how this software really came about. I started it in that previous organization, but then I really wanted to pursue that this full time where my 100% of my attention is on helping youth program providers. So that's where I am now, without your school HQ.

J. Lee:

Yeah, this stuff. So, as you were sharing with us, you were with your mom when she started her own afterschool program in her organization. So how did that experience kind of prepared you for what you're doing now, like with your software and with your organization?

Darye:

Yeah, I think the main thing is, you know, starting there I got to see one at the ground floor the joy of starting the program, but also the struggles right there's behind the scenes, where you know you don't know how you're gonna get going, how you're gonna find students. You know how are you gonna find the organization or locations you partner with. And then sometimes you know, end of year You're wondering, you know, can we keep the lights on? You know that's a standard, that was an ongoing End of year question Can we do this another year? And so I think that really Showed me the experience one of.

Darye:

I could see my mom being very passionate about it, like she's gonna do it no matter what. But then, on the flip side, how do you really help Not only people you know, not only my mom, but obviously people who are like her, which is pretty much everyone in afterschool programs, but who are really trying to make an impact? And so how do we invest in them? How do we make it easier so that they don't burn out, because a the vast majority of people, there's a lot of like 50% of employees and team members and leaders who work each program to actually Burn out or are in the process of burning out, and so that's kind of where, you know, I like the folks are teaching, but how could we help, how can we make a difference?

J. Lee:

And putting that concept together. I know your mom was kind of the foundation of that right. So when you started building out that process, what were some of the important things for you to have? Like these were your key things that you Needed to have in your program and in your software yeah.

Darye:

So the way I kind of break that down is you feel like you need to be able to think about what's important to sustain an organization that's serving young people. You need to be able to attract and retain students, right? That's a big part of it. Sounds simple, it's not right? You got to be able to bring them in, let them know about it. That's a real challenge. And then the other part is how do you maximize your effectiveness?

Darye:

So that's individually, because there's again, there's so many things you got to pay attention to as a founder of an organization where you're pretty much doing every job, right, you're the janitor, you're the executive, you know all of that, right. And so how do you maximize your effectiveness? And if you have a team, how do you help maximize theirs? And then the last part is how do you report back to funders your impact, right? So you think about the foundations they give you. If you get that grant, now they're going to say, well, how do you measure your impact, which is not always easy, right? In some cases it could be, oh, their grades improve. In other cases, it could be they got a bank account or they're not as angry as they used to be. You know those are sometimes different ways to measure it, but how do you report that back?

J. Lee:

Because if you can report that back, well, now you got a chance to get more funding, and so those are kind of the three areas that I saw that were especially challenging at the organization we were with and as you were building out this process and you finally got it your baby off the ground, right yeah, what were some of the things that was a challenge for you as far as shopping around to make sure that you had the right people to support you, but also the right investors at the same time you know again similar founder stories, which is what I like, whether it's for profit or nonprofit.

Darye:

But one of the big challenges was getting my head above water, in a way, and being able to look up and look forward and not just looking at the details and the work that I had in front of me. Because, as you're doing something you're passionate about, a lot of times your hands are on the work because you have to keep that moving. But I had to learn that I have to have conversations like this conversation we're having right now. I get to tell my story right, and that's a big part of creating community or creating a tribe or whatever you want to call it. But getting that story out, because now you can get supporters and investors behind you. I'd say that's been the biggest help is being able to practice telling that story over and over again, getting the reps in opportunities, but then also realizing that a lot of people don't feel you, they don't have the same experiences that you have right, so they're not as passionate about it or they don't see the need or whatever it may be. But you still have to maintain that passion for it, because there are people like you out there who are going to say oh, I love what you're doing, how can I support? But the challenge is getting over that discouragement of hearing a lot of no's, you know, and that's difficult, just to add to it.

Darye:

The other thing too is getting, I say, a co-founder or another person who has the same passion as you, have the same energy level. That helped me up tremendously as well. You know, I've done things on my own and like, when you're down, you need somebody else to be up. You know what I'm saying. Or you need somebody to sometimes laugh with, take a break with, and then, when you're moving, have someone you can rely on as well. I'd say that's another thing. A lot of times, as a solo founder, it can be very difficult to go through the ups and downs.

J. Lee:

Well, hold that thought y'all. We're going to go ahead and take a quick break and we'll be right back. You know, go ahead, stretch your legs, get your snack, do all those wonderful things, but don't go too far. See you in a minute. Are you a program director or thinking of starting a program? Maybe you need new curriculum that focuses on character development or technical skills, or you need help establishing effective program logistics to have an impactful program culture. Or, overall, you just need a program evaluation. Well, school after hours consulting case. Here. To help, contact us at schoolafterhourscom and our contact information is in the show notes. Hope to hear from you soon.

J. Lee:

Hello everyone, welcome back to the second part of our show. We have the CEO of After School HQ here with us, mr Darje Henry, and he's giving us his story of how he started an app school program, but also how that led to him making his own software to help programs be not just efficient in collecting their data, but also giving them ways and giving them access to report out, to help get funding. You know, share the impact, give their stories, all those wonderful things. What we left off is, you know, giving a little bit more information about app school HQ as a business. So, darje, here's my question for you how did you get organizations to buy into the concept of after school HQ and use the platform at the same time? Because when you're going to organizations and you're like here, here's this wonderful thing that could help you out in this, this, this way, some people will get you like, now, you like. So how did you then get them? You know that buy-in, that's important.

Darye:

Yeah, for me it felt like the first thing you had to do was get a few wins right. You got to get your first group or first few organizations to say, okay, you're new, but I'll believe in you, if that makes sense. Now the good thing is obviously my mom runs her organization, so she's obviously one of the first people using the platform and what she was doing. So that's a perfect test bed. It's a perfect way to understand how the organizations use it. But we also started working with Indianapolis Public Schools.

Darye:

Actually, my co-founder and COO of Afterschool HQ his students were going to IPS School 70, so it's Indianapolis Public Schools here and he was like, hey, we have some software that can help you with your afterschool programs. Would you give us a chance to try it out here? And so they were like, yes, because he was an involved parent and his children were in afterschool programs. So they gave an opportunity there just to start with. And that actually spread right where we were able to have conversations with other schools and the youth programs that were providing those afterschool programs for the young people. So we had conversations with them, got to have feedback. So we worked really closely with organizations to help design and develop what the software was.

J. Lee:

Cool, Because working in the public school sector is a challenge. You can't just walk up to them and be like, hey, so try this because it's great. So how did you begin to go through that process of being visible as a brand but also using those stories that you've had before to test things out?

Darye:

Yeah. So the biggest thing was, once you have a few organizations using it already. Now you have something you can demo, you have testimonials, you have stories that you can tell, and that was a big thing. And we can't forget relationships are a huge part of it. You have to spend time just talking to people building those relationships. The other part is, I'd say the biggest thing is persistence. People are busy, they have a lot going on. The other part is they're trying to see are you going to be around? You know what I'm saying Is your organization going to be around for a long enough period? And if you drop off in six months, then they're probably like, well, that's probably better.

Darye:

I didn't engage. So I think for us it definitely was persistence. If they don't call us back, we call them anyway saying, hey, we're still here. So all of that went into it. And then again we did have to work on things like pitch decks, where you get to share your vision. You had to organize it. You got to put your strategy together, your short-term plan, long-term plan, how you will continue to support the organization and the schools, and so I think putting that all together, really showing your serious, being persistent, all that matters when building these relationships.

J. Lee:

And once you made that move into public schools public school districts are not small at all At all. So at that point, when you did make that relationship and it did start to happen to you, when did you start to say to yourself OK, I may need to add additional help to the business because we're in the space of expansion.

Darye:

Yeah, that man. That really speaks to a pain point. So I know the exact time period when that happened. What's interesting? Initially we worked with NM's public schools. We offered it our platform for free. We just said, hey, we're just going to start, we're going to serve and we're going to be helpful. So that's how we got in the door and of course, it was a persistence all that, but we had to say, hey, we're going to try this out. But really, let me know, I need some help and we need to get investors and we need to build a team. Was the pandemic Right?

Darye:

When that happened, it was like, first of all, the stress of the pandemic just existed. You know what I'm saying? It's just over your head. Like, oh, what's going to happen to me economically? I mean, you know what's going to happen. All those questions, a lot of our customers. They weren't publishing activities anymore because obviously they couldn't have in person. We had to process a whole bunch of refunds just because all the classes they got canceled, and so we had to make a lot of changes to the platform during the time and I was really overworked. You know, I was doing working. I could say 24, seven, but it felt like that for a time.

Darye:

Yeah, and that's where I actually had a conversation with my co-founder, said like, hey, we need some investors If we're going to continue doing this. We need some help and we're going to figure out how to get that. Another thing, too, behind that was I didn't want to give up. You know there's, there are people I've seen in my life who have made it through the valley, essentially right, and they got to the other side and they've succeeded. And sometimes that takes a lot of hard work, sometimes that takes a lot of years, and I wanted to see this through and say, hey, we put in this work, we built up something. Let's do the next step, let's figure out how we can get people on board to help us. And so that's what we both agreed on and said, hey, we're not going to give up. Even, like I said, pandemic was rough and it was rough for everybody, especially in education. It was very difficult time, and so that was probably the key point that made me realize that you know, let's get some help.

J. Lee:

And in that experience did you have ways that were more innovative to what you were doing as far as your software or servicing at school programs period.

Darye:

Yeah, I think one thing we learned so this was interesting because it's funny that we didn't really focus on changing too much. We thought about going virtual and trying to focus on that. But one thing we realized because I got three kids was that virtual for young people is just terrible. You know what I'm saying. Like it was terrible, even though you had to do it. It was one of those things that we knew as parents. We couldn't wait for our kids to get back in person, because as adults it's not our favorite thing and I saw them every day just struggling on the computers, trying to do class and et cetera. So one thing we stuck with was we know this is going to come back and we know that kids want to be in person. And, again, we know how important this after school, out of school time, is. So we really just focused. In a way we kind of doubled down on it because we just believed it would come back.

J. Lee:

Amazing. So, unfortunately, oh, that brings us to the end of our show, but before we go ahead and sign out, we have one more section to get to, which is our professionals lounge. Right, wonderful people, we have made it to our professionals lounge section. This is our wrap up. So, daria, this is my question for you what advice would you give youth development professionals about avoiding burnout, because that's something that we mentioned in the story when we talked about it a little bit. But, and what, if you not to hit that wall? What are some things that you would suggest, that not just site directors, but also program providers, those that are helping out with program and giving all of the electives and the good stuff. How, what are some things from your experience Would you advise them? Like, don't do that.

Darye:

No, yeah, I really appreciate this question because when I talked about burnout earlier, the thing I didn't mention was I was a person that burned out and I was doing the you know chairman of the board of organization, but I also was doing youth ministry as well and I also was doing my own business as an entrepreneur and I was working a lot. And one of the hard things to do when you're like a can do part, like you see a need, you're going to go after it and try to help whoever you can. You know it was very hard to say I'm just going to wait until Wednesday to work with these kids, when I know Thursday, friday, saturday, all through the week they're dealing with all these challenges. And so it really was hard for me to say no you know what I'm saying to a need or to take care of myself. And so I found myself in a position where I was totally overworked, and when I say burned out, I mean physically. My body was done Like really adrenal fatigue, all that. I couldn't work for like three months, and so when you think about that, it's like you're trying to work so hard that you end up working yourself to a point where no one can rely on you at that point anyway.

Darye:

So the big thing for me that I had to learn was one was be a little more strategic. Right, take time to again. You see a need, go after it, yes. But you can also pause and say how do I get other people around this to make this successful? How do I lay out a strategy that makes this sustainable? Cause it's a marathon, you know what I mean. Like the one thing we know for sure. In as much as I wish that I can paint away all the troubles of the world in an instant, we just know that's not how it works.

Darye:

And the hard thing I was young. I was like I can do it. I can do it all, whatever. So I had to be humble, keep them sane and realize I need help. I have to learn to rely on others. I have to be strategic and focus in ways where my strengths are as well. Like another thing I'll mention is and this sounds it's a small thing, but it really sticks out to me Back then it used to be like can I use technology, or can I use a service, or can I pay someone to help me as a bookkeeper, or whatever that may be?

Darye:

Sometimes we're like, hey, this costs me $50 a month or whatever it is, whatever that cost is, and then we'll say, I'll just do that myself. But when you think about our time is worth so much more than that, when you think about it, right. And so I really wish that. There's one main thing I would have changed would have been like hey, spend that 50 to save me 10 hours, 40 hours a month, whatever that amount is right, just to make it easier for myself, because that's where the self care comes in. It's like sometimes it's just a little money but it can save you a lot of headache and it can set you up right To be able to get the real funding that you need. So that's kind of my experience overall. But, yeah, get help, get people, get resources, and if you need to pay for some of that, I know that's right Because, like you said, your time is the most valuable thing.

Darye:

Yes, yes, absolutely.

J. Lee:

Well, thank you, Dr Darae, for being here and greatly appreciate you. For anyone that wants to get in touch with you and know more about afterschoolHQ or I know that you're doing like speaking things on YouTube I'm gonna drop that in there Go ahead and give them your information on how to get in touch with you.

Darye:

Yeah, absolutely Easiest way you can get in touch with me, or and the team too, is just send it to hello at afterschoolHQcom. So that's our email. You can also find our website, which is afterschoolHQcom. You can go there, find out more about our organization. You can also find out about our community. We do have a Facebook community where we work with youth organizations and help them find resources they need. We're also on YouTube as well. You can find videos. We do spotlights of organizations and get to tell stories and their success stories, so we love doing that. So definitely feel free to reach out. We're on Instagram, afterschoolhq as well. So, yeah, you should be able to find us anywhere you know, wherever you can find that tag afterschoolHQ.

J. Lee:

Well, everyone, that brings us to the end of our show. If you like what you heard and you enjoyed our conversation, make sure that you're following us on YouTube, but also hit that like button so we know what you are enjoying. You can also find us on other podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, spotify and Google Podcasts. If you wanna listen to our audio version as well, to get more behind the scenes stuff, make sure that you're following us on our social media accounts Instagram and Facebook at schoolafterhours. Well, that's all I have for today, and the words of Mr Arthur Ashe start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. Until next time, y'all, bye-bye.