OUR MISSION
Open Doors Academy works to protect, inspire, nurture and challenge youth to reach their full potential.
OUR VISION
We seek to advance educational equity in the communities we serve. We create free, high-quality, out-of-school time programs that individually meet the needs of scholars by partnering with families and schools and by investing in educators on our team and across the state.
WHO WE ARE
Open Doors Academy is a Greater Cleveland-based nonprofit organization working to level the educational playing field for scholars by offering comprehensive out-of-school time programs and support for students and families in grades K-12 and at least one year out of high school.
From the minute the last school bell rings, ODA is there, greeting students and engaging them in our academicand enrichment activities. ODA’s enrichment model offers five core components: afterschool, summer, scholar travel, family engagement, and alumni.
Our Statewide Work
Beyond Northeast Ohio, ODA operates customized afterschool programs across Northern Ohio. We build programs together with school districts that are responsive to the local needs of the community. We design the program, train the teachers, provide curriculum and other resources, and provide backend support to these partners so the programs can thrive.
Knowing that the need for out-of-school time resources was great and that we could not provide for every scholar in Ohio, ODA founded the Center for Out-of-School Advancement in 2018 to lead a statewide effort to expand high-quality out-of-school time programs in Ohio. COSA spearheads our efforts to expand access to and improve the quality of out-of-school time programming across the state.
To learn more about our statewide work and the COSA initiatives, please visit our page on “Statewide Work.”
Celebrating 30 years of protecting, inspiring, nurturing and challenging youth to reach their dreams
In 1992, several parishioners at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights saw a need in their neighborhood and met it. They opened their doors to a group of children from Roxboro Middle School who needed a place to go once school ended.
Thirty years later, those doors are still open, as are many others across Northeast, Northwest, and Central Ohio. Since 1992, Open Doors Academy has grown to serve over 1,000 scholars annually in grades K-12 at over 15 sites. We support our alumni in their postsecondary pursuits, operate seven weeks of summer camp for over 900 scholars, and train over 200 afterschool providers across the state, indirectly impacting over 40,000 children.
Thirty years later, kids still need a place to go when the school day ends, and thirty years later, neighborhoods, schools, and partners still respond to that need with open doors and open hearts.
OUR VALUES
Our staff is always reflecting on what defines us and how we do this important work. We collaborated to describe our values that we call “The Essential Ten.”