The study focuses on nine cities that are part of the Next Generation Afterschool System-Building Initiative, a multi-year effort to strengthen the systems that support access to and participation in high-quality afterschool programs for low-income youth. The nine cities are: Baltimore, MD, Denver, CO, Fort Worth, TX, Grand Rapids, MI, Jacksonville, FL, Louisville, KY, Nashville, TN, Philadelphia, PA, and Saint Paul, MN. An interim report titled Connecting the Dots: Data Use in Afterschool Systems, produced by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, presents early findings from the study on how afterschool systems build their capacity to capture, describe, and improve their practices through their data systems. (author abstract)