Weekly Media Roundup: December 8, 2021

Weekly Media Roundup, December 8, 2021

Cleveland County Family YMCA Addresses Learning Loss, The Star (North Carolina)

To help students catch up on reading skills amidst the pandemic, the Cleveland County Family YMCA in North Carolina is partnering with Learning Ovations, a community literacy support organization, to offer robust, evidence-based literacy programming at its afterschool sites. The initiative is designed to engage parents and kids with hands-on activities, and program leaders say they’ve already seen tangible results. “Literally [students will] walk in and say, ‘Are we going to reading group today?’” Program Director Jasmine Bullard told The Star. “The kids bought into it quicker than anybody else because we found a way to get creative and make it fun for them.”

Helping House a Place for Kids After School, Observer-Reporter (Pennsylvania)

Thanks to a collaboration between Waynesburg University and the Carmichaels Area School District in Greene County, Pennsylvania, middle school students are enjoying playing traditional board games, eating healthy dinners and receiving homework assistance from university student teachers at the Helping House afterschool program. “This was called the Homework House when we first started it, but after talking to parents and kids, we changed the name to the Helping House because it’s not just for homework. There’s so much going on here,” Helping House Supervisor Traci Dobish told the Observer-Reporter.

After-School Program for Charlotte Immigrant and Refugee Students Expands to Second Site, WFAE (North Carolina)

To support a growing community of immigrant and refugee students, OurBRIDGE for Kids in Charlotte, North Carolina opened a second afterschool program for 50 middle school students arriving from Afghanistan. “Because many new families will be coming from Afghanistan, we will be training our staff and translating our documents in order to make their transition into our community as smooth as possible,” OurBRIDGE Founder Sil Ganzó told WFAE. The afterschool program provides English immersion activities to students from Africa, Central America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Camp Fire’s After School Program to Keep Improving After Generous Donation, Texomas Home Page (Texas)

Each day after school, more than 80 students in Wichita Falls, Texas explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects through hands-on projects, practice problem solving and persevering through challenges, and more in Camp Fire’s afterschool program. The Howmet Aerospace Foundation recently awarded Camp Fire a $25,000 grant to continue to support students’ development and spark their interest in STEM. “We’re so fortunate to be involved with [Howmet] and get to do wonderful things that these kids may never be exposed to. And, we hope that this money goes towards this endeavor and we make scientists, and mathematicians and doctors, you name it,” Camp Fire President Jeff Watts told Texomas Home Page.