Weekly Media Roundup: January 25, 2023

California’s Summer and After-School Programs are Effective and Should be Expanded, Report Finds, EdSource (California)

To help students recover from the pandemic, the state of California invested $4 billion in expanded learning programs. A new report from the Partnership for Children and Youth analyzing the first year of the program found that “the state’s investments made it possible for far more students to benefit from summer and after-school enrichment programs, especially those from low-income families. Students benefitted academically as well as socially and emotionally,” EdSource reports. The report includes a number of recommendations for next steps, including making the new funding permanent, surveying students and parents on their experiences, expanding the program to include middle and high school students, and more.

Knoxville Church Lends a Hand to Help After-School Program Reopen After Burst Pipe, WATE-TV (Tennessee)

When a pipe burst in the Thrive afterschool program’s kitchen over Christmas, Second Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee quickly offered the use of their kitchen so students could continue to receive dinners at the program. “Thrive really is a second home for a lot of the kids, they spend about four hours every day after school with us and we provide the academic help they need, the social help, and the food is a major component of it as well,” Holly Kizer, a grant writer with Thrive, told WATE-TV. The Knoxville community is also raising money to help pay for the costly repairs.

Multi-Million-Dollar Investment Project Focuses on Impoverished Neighborhood, WSOC-TV (South Carolina)

To assist the approximately two-thirds of Lancaster, South Carolina residents living at or below poverty level, the Lancaster Promise Neighborhood project offers comprehensive services, including afterschool programs, to prepare students for school and beyond. Sha’kur Francis, program director at Lancaster Promise Neighborhood, spoke about his experience as a former participant in an afterschool program. “I grew up in a community similar to this in Charleston. It was because of an education that I’m able to stand before you today,” Francis told WSOC-TV. “Lancaster Promise Neighborhood (project) is a five-year, $25-million federal grant aimed to start programs that start from the cradle of a child’s life, up until college or career.”

Hallie Q Brown Expanding Ater-School Program to Middle, High School Students in St. Paul, KARE 11 (Minnesota)

A new afterschool program for middle and high schoolers at the Hallie Q Brown Community Center will focus on technology and academics and provide tutoring from local college students. The program is part of a community response to the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old last week in St. Paul. "We've seen the demand and we've known that we need it. It's been something that we've been thinking about for a while. We just want a safe place for [students] and a place where they can come and be focused on what they have to focus on, not on protecting themselves,” Assistant Executive Director Angie Goettl told KARE 11.