Weekly Media Roundup, August 5, 2020

The After School All Stars Program Provides Support for Both Students and Parents, WSFL-TV (Florida)

When schools closed due the pandemic, After School All Stars (ASAS) quickly found ways to support students and families remotely, first with a virtual afterschool program and then with a virtual summer camp. Studying the histories of various cultures has been a focus of the camp this summer.  ASAS has also provided more than 100,000 grocery store gift cards to families whose finances have been impacted by the pandemic. “I’m all for it,” Erica Green, whose 14-year-old daughter attends the program in South Florida, told WSFL-TV. “Because for me if I’m at work I don’t want her to be home and trying to figure out what to do… So I know that they have [her] doing something constructive, which is also very entertaining for [her].”

Sidestepping the Summer Slide: SHARP Literacy Seeks to Keep Kids Engaged During Pandemic Pause, CBS 58 (Wisconsin)

At the Silver Spring Neighborhood Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, elementary students have spent the summer growing banana peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini, learning about the science of agriculture, cooking nutritional food, working on art projects, and more. The SHARP Literacy, Inc. in-person summer learning program has taken extra precautions during the pandemic, including masks and social distancing.  SHARP serves more than 8,500 students in 40 schools with afterschool and summer programs. “The longer these kids are out of school, call it an opportunity gap, that opportunity gap is just going to continue to expand,” President and CEO Lynda Kohler told CBS 58. She said it’s rewarding “just seeing these kids, seeing them learn. Seeing them experience new things. Making them feel special.”

Project Transformation Provides Meals, Literacy Resources for Thousands of North Texas Students, NBC 5 (Texas)

Since the pandemic hit, Project Transformation has provided meals and virtual literacy programming to more than 1,500 students in North Texas. The afterschool and summer program focuses on supporting children in need with mentorship, social-emotional learning, and more. “Our families said they needed food. So we partnered with North Texas Food Bank and Full Filled Project. We have been doing daily food distribution in a drive-through model in the parking lots. Also providing summer camp bags through Toy Maven,” Executive Director Lauren Richard told NBC 5.

The Making Foundation Plans to Launch a New School Program Once One-of-a-Kind Summer Camps Come to an End, WXFR-TV (Virginia)

The Making Foundation offers afterschool and summer programs for students ages 6 to 14 in Roanoke, Virginia focused on developing students’ creativity through hands-on “making” projects. For example, at the summer learning program students recently created 3-dimensional objects out of a sheet of plywood using the wide array of building tools in the program’s workshop. At the afterschool program this year, students will also work with tutors on virtual learning. “It’s exciting to see kids get impassioned, especially when they’re told at other places that they may or may not be good or bad at something. We focus on what kids are good at here. We appreciate it when kids think outside of the box,” Operations and Development Manager Mary Bruce Clemons told WFXR-TV