Weekly Media Roundup: March 25, 2020

‘We Have Built a Very Strong Connection to Our Girls’: Girls Inc. Finding Creative Ways to Stay in Touch, Taunton Daily Gazette (Massachusetts)

Each weekday, the Girls, Inc. program in Taunton, Massachusetts is offering a ‘virtual afterschool program’ via the video conferencing software Zoom, during this time when the physical program itself has been closed due to the coronavirus. The virtual program features science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, yoga and meditation, dancing, snack preparation, art projects, financial literacy and more. The goal is to increase students’ confidence and help them stay physically fit and academically supported. “I think it is important to stay connected so that our members maintain a sense of the familiar and to bring some fun into their day…. I believe our mission to empower our girls by inspiring them to be strong, smart and bold is more important than ever,” Executive Director Jessica Johnstone Darling told the Taunton Gazette.

Arts In Reach Program for Teen Girls Adapts in Pandemic, Fosters.com (New Hampshire)

When Arts In Reach (AIR) closed its afterschool program in Portsmouth, New Hampshire due to the coronavirus pandemic, program leaders quickly devised a strategy to continue supporting teens virtually. Staff distributed packages of art supplies and healthy snacks to program participants, and the program is facilitating art activities via video conference and meeting online with individual teens and families to assess their needs. “I am extremely proud of our staff and AIR community – our teens, families, volunteers and board,” Executive Director Debra Holloway told Fosters.com. “Everyone has pulled together and looked for the positives in this time of adversity. We have built a strong community of support, and though it’s currently virtual, we will be even stronger when this period is over.”

A Great Idea, Family Donates Dozens of Breakfasts to Boys and Girls Club, and Helps a Local Restaurant, Delaware Online (Delaware)

Many students in the Fraim Boys and Girls Club afterschool program in Delaware are the children of health care professionals and, with recent school closures, are now spending their whole day in the program. To help provide meals to these students, longtime Club donor and volunteer Rosemary Leader paid a local restaurant to provide breakfast to all 80 children one day last week. “I thought back to the restaurants, and I thought we could get the restaurants business, to help these people who need food now,” Leader told Delaware Online.

After School All Stars Shifts to Online, Works to Raise Funds for Families, Youth Today

After School All Stars provides free afterschool programs in 60 cities across the United States, reaching about 90,000 children. For now, all programs have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the organization is working to provide food assistance and virtual programming to its families, many of whom live in poverty. The program will offer daily physical activity and social and emotional learning activities online and is fund-raising to provide food vouchers to families in need. “We should be able to reach most students at home online,” Ben Paul, president and CEO, told Youth Today. “One truism of afterschool is that it’s not mandatory. If you want kids to show up, you have to be engaging.”