Weekly Media Roundup: April 24, 2024

Nonprofit Gives Penn Hills Kids a Safe Place to Gather After School, KDKA News (Pennsylvania)

At the Young Black Motivated Kings and Queens afterschool program in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, students conduct science experiments, play indoor and outdoor sports, and are paired with adult mentors who offer support and guidance. Kahlil Darden founded the program five years ago after the local YMCA closed. He was a student at the time, attending Penn Hills High School. “I faced a lot of traumatic experiences over the last few years, and for me, it was being able to take that pain and turn it into purpose and provide spaces for young people who might be experiencing the things that I went through,” Darden told KDKA News. Thanks to additional funding, the program will soon have a computer lab and art studio.

School Districts Across CT Likely to Cut Jobs, Programs in Coming Months as Money Runs Out, Register Citizen (Connecticut)

As the federal COVID relief funding expires, many afterschool, summer learning, and tutoring programs in Connecticut will face deep cuts or elimination, finds a new School and State Finance Project survey of state superintendents. “Now we’re actually seeing what it means from a student standpoint and a program standpoint and a staff standpoint,” Michael Morton, deputy executive director of the School and State Finance Project, told the Register Citizen. “You’re seeing the actual impact of the cuts and what is going to be lost and how it’s going to impact students.”

Extension Office Takes 4-H Into the Urban Classrooms, Tribune Chronicle (Ohio)

Through its Extension in the Classroom program, the Ohio State University Extension is partnering with four afterschool programs and four public schools in Mahoning County to bring 4-H programming to students in urban communities. The lessons focus on hands-on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) projects and career exploration. “People used to think that one had to be on a farm to participate in 4-H,” urban extension educator Kristen Eisenhauer told the Tribune Chronicle. “Gaining new 4-H members is not the goal of the classroom program, but we do end up with some kids joining a club.”

Teen HYPE Celebrates 20 Years of Empowering Youth with New Stage Performance, Michigan Chronicle (Michigan)

Since 2004, the Teen HYPE afterschool program has provided more than 35,000 Detroit-area students with mentorship and arts enrichment. Each year, students collaborate to write, stage and perform an original musical. To celebrate the organization’s 20th anniversary, Teen HYPE is presenting a public performance of “Strung,” which is set in a beauty salon and explores the impact of social media across generations and socioeconomic classes. “When our young people perform on stage, they get to be seen, celebrated and validated in a world where they are often invisible,” Teen HYPE CEO Ambra Redrick told the Michigan Chronicle. “Our teens are using theater to reverse the wrongs they see in our world. They see firsthand their collective power and through theater their voice is amplified.”