Squash Gives Kids a Way to Win Big on Court, in Life (Plain Dealer, Ohio)
Students from low-income neighborhoods throughout Cleveland are being recruited to play a somewhat unusual sport – squash. Some 45 students participate in Urban Squash Cleveland. “This is really about youth development,” Urban Community School Associate Director Tom Gill told the Plain Dealer, “and we are committed to the whole child approach and to the physical, social, emotional, spiritual and academic development of a child, and you can’t do all of that in a classroom during the school day.” Urban Squash Cleveland is one of 23 sites youth development organizations that combine homework help, community service and entrepreneurship opportunities, and squash lessons.
Where Girls Become ‘Mighty’ (Metro Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Mighty Writers, a popular and successful afterschool writing program in Philadelphia, has added a new class to its roster focused on empowering young girls. The Girl Power writing series introduces girls ages seven to 17 to the writing of women like Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, and Malala Yousafzai, inspiring them to find their inner ‘girl power’ through poetry and creative writing exercises. “If we express ourselves in writing, we can get somewhere in life and be just as equal as men,” 14-year-old Nyelah Johnson told Metro.
Next month, Latinitas will celebrate 15 successful years of providing digital media and technology training to thousands of girls and teens across Texas. The nonprofit offers workshops, camps, afterschool programs, an online magazine and a soon-to-come virtual reality design program to introduce young Latinas to media and tech, sectors in which they are not currently well-represented. “I believe discussing the representations of Latinas in media at such a young age required me to constantly self-reflect,” Latinitas alumna Krista Nesbitt told the Austin American-Statesman. “I felt compelled to think about what I wanted to represent and stand for. Above all, Latinitas inspired me to be fearless and passionate.”
Nonprofit Helps Instill Cooking Skills (Riverton Ranger, Wyoming)
The Arapaho Odyssey Cooking and Gardening afterschool program is teaching elementary schoolers how to cook healthy, satisfying meals. The program uses a mobile ‘kitchen for every classroom’ provided by the nonprofit Charlie Cart Project to give students a hands-on opportunity to learn about nutrition, collaboration, food education and more. Students cook up dishes like herb and cheese frittatas, strawberry shortcakes and banana oatmeal cookies, often using ingredients from the school’s garden. “Cooking is a life lesson,” special education paraprofessional Hope Peralta told the Riverton Ranger. “We’re trying to teach a healthier way rather than eating out of a box.”