This booklet describes the CORAL (Communities Organizing Resources To Advance Learning) program within five California communities: Pasadena, Long Beach, San Jose, Fresno, and Sacramento. This initiative, begun in 1999, is committed to a community-based and community-building approach to supporting learning and focuses on improving academic achievement during out-of-school hours. It is based on a theory that academic achievement will be improved through a combination of community-level changes. Its mission is to improve academic achievement in grades K-12 by mobilizing families and aligning community-wide networks of enriching out-of-school resources to support student learning. Each community adapts the CORAL model to local circumstances, forming community partnerships and a sense of collective responsibility in the process. Each CORAL community also incorporates an academic-based Youth Institute to engage high school students. It begins with an intensive summer program and continues throughout the year on a regular basis. CORAL communities emphasize technology use, harnessing technology's power in the areas of learning, communications, and capacity building. An important element in capacity building is educating parents and caregivers to build an informed constituency that will demand high quality activities for their children and work to improve the quality of schools. Six appendices present CORAL's theory of change model, 15 strategies of successful after-school programs, the consultant team roster, the National Advisory Committee roster, site contacts, and a tear-out card for getting involved in CORAL. (SM)