Weekly Media Roundup: February 8, 2023

News 12 Takes a Look at New After-School Class Focused on Educating Kids About Cannabis, News 12 Connecticut (New York)

At the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) afterschool program in the Bronx, New York, middle school students discuss pressing issues, including the legalization of marijuana, in an open, safe space. “We really felt like it was essential education for students to have a basic understanding of what the basics of addiction [are], what decisions they are going to make around this new norm of marijuana being legal,” Nichol Jennings, a program director at WHEDco, told News 12. During the “Just Ask Me”/JAM sessions, teachers and high school peer mentors talk with students about the dangers and impact marijuana has on teenagers and the community.

After-School Program Serving Disadvantaged Areas Proves Why Its Students Are All-Stars, Hawaii News Now (Hawaii)

Since 2009, After-School All-Stars has provided free academic enrichment, sports and community service activities to disadvantaged and underserved middle schoolers in Hawaii. “We do have a lot of data in relation to how our students are achieving better grades, better behaviors, and better attendance while they’re in our program in the middle-school time,” After-School All-Stars President and CEO Paula Fitzell told Hawaii News Now. Fitzell considers the service-learning projects to be a key component of the program. “We create in [the students] a responsibility to their community and an understanding that the little things they do can really give back to everybody in their communities. Suddenly they realize their place in the community.”

Cleveland After-School Program Helps Kids Find Their Passion and Preps Them for the Workforce, News 5 Cleveland (Ohio)

At the Our Youth, Our Future afterschool program in Cleveland, students produce their own radio shows about social issues, record original songs in a recording studio, work toward cosmetology licenses in the program’s Beauty and Business course, and more. The program is opening a second location to provide a safe and supportive space for additional students. "The children needed somewhere to go, to learn, to eat, to make friends," Executive Director Barbara Bradford-Williams told News 5 Cleveland. “They wanna come every single day, all day. Weekends. They love it here.”

Horton's Kids Opens New Headquarters in Southeast D.C., Axios

Students can access mental health resources, job training, a media lab, tutoring, and meals at the new Horton’s Kids headquarters in southeast Washington, D.C. The program aims to support students amidst the ongoing challenges created by the pandemic and gun violence in the surrounding community. About 600 students currently participate, and program leaders say they are twice as likely to graduate high school than their peers. Yvette Pinkney told Axios that her three children’s grades have improved “tremendously” as a result of the programs’ tutoring services. “[My children] have met new friends, they interact with the volunteers, the teachers here,” Pinkney told Axios.