BACKGROUND
How do you increase high school graduation rates by more than 90%? Get kids to keep learning, even when they’re not in school. And how do you do that? By offering them such a wide range of learning opportunities, they can fill their out-of-school time with activities they love—and in so doing, find out what they’re really good at.

That’s the idea behind an initiative from the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota. The program coordinates the city’s many existing resources to offer kids hundreds of free or low-cost activities and programs, from art to basketball to reading to music to math tutoring. Pollywog led a diverse group of influencers and decision-makers—including the Mayor’s Office, school board, library system, parks and recreation department, Youth Commission and students themselves—through the branding process to give this innovative program the energetic, youthful name it deserved.

BRAND STORY
What do you love? Music? Sports? Science? Art? You’ll find whatever gets you energized among the hundreds of activities and classes available through Sprockets. Through this huge range of opportunities, you can find what you’re really good at,  and who knows where that could take you?

NAME
A sprocket is a gear that enables motion—an apt metaphor for how afterschool learning can help propel a student toward future success. It also alludes to the interconnected nature of the program, which coordinated hundreds of independent offerings together into a single searchable resource.