For most of their history, two separate, but related, after-school education programs operated independently, coordinated by separate teams of university and community partners. When the existence of the programs was threatened, a community-university coalition formed in an effort to sustain them. This coincided with the university-community teams' joint response to a reorientation of the statewide university system's policies on affirmative action. This article uses Cuban's framework of sustainability and cultural-historical activity theory to analyze a process of communication, collaboration, creativity, and continuing that resulted in sustaining the two programs as well as the expansion and development of multiple new programs (Cuban, as cited in ONeil, 2000; Cuban, 2001; Tyack & Cuban, 1995).