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Meeting the crisis: Afterschool leaders rise to the challenge

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👏 Meeting the crisis: Afterschool leaders rise to the challenge

Rico X

As part of our campaign this holiday season to show our gratitude for afterschool professionals, we are sharing some of the extraordinary efforts undertaken by our Afterschool Ambassadors and their programs to support kids and families throughout the pandemic. We thank them, and the many afterschool leaders across the nation who have risen to the challenge. Afterschool professionals swept into action, often reinventing their programs, and finding new and creative ways to serve children and families when they were most in need of help.

Supporting Essential Workers. When the pandemic first hit, essential workers had no choice to stay home. Many afterschool programs opened their doors to children of essential workers. In many cases, such efforts also overcame the problem of Internet and computer access, since the programs could provide both on site.

  • At the very beginning of the shutdowns, Rico X's program in Nashville, the YMCA of Middle Tennessee, kept its doors open for children of essential workers so that they could do their vital work without worrying that their children were unsupervised during the day. Between March and August, the program served more than 2,000 children across six different counties.
  • In Lovington, New Mexico, Melinda Franco's Teen Court of Lea County did the same for essential employees of the city and county, as well as those of local hospitals.
  • Kaylee Milliner's program, Promise South Salt Lake, did the same, and even opened a second site to expand the effort in April of 2020.

Tony Yungeberg

Providing Meals and Food. Recognizing the instability that the pandemic would cause low-income families, many programs began packing meals for students and their families, then either delivered them or organized pick-up locations.

  • In the rural community of Waterville, Kansas, Tony Yungeberg's Valley Heights Community Education program began delivering meals and provided meal pickup locations at two sites. At the height of the shutdowns, kitchen staff were preparing just as many meals as they had been before the pandemic.
  • In Boone, North Carolina, Emily Neff's WAMY Community Action packed and delivered backpacks with snacks and food boxes to 250 students in that rural community.
  • In New York State, Angela Todriff-Mundy's program at the Family YMCA of the Glens Falls Area reached far beyond their own student base, running a food drive that brought in 319 pounds of food, the bulk from their own students as part of a contest. The program then partnered with a local food pantry to distribute the food to needy families.
  • In Toledo, Ohio, Debbie Frison's 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, working with Feeding America, delivered more than 1,000 boxes of produce, many to seniors and community centers.
  • Tina Fleming's afterschool program, run through the Gwinnett County Parks and Recreation Department, worked with local co-ops to connect families to a range of food and health services.

Such above-and-beyond efforts were hardly unique to Afterschool Ambassadors. Across the nation, afterschool providers have found ways to rise above the challenges to help youth thrive. We thank all of these heroes of the pandemic.

This is the first blog in a two-part series. Check out part two, "👏 Supporting learning: Afterschool leaders rise to the challenge."

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