Weekly Media Roundup: October 25, 2023

Iberville Coalition Launches Baton Rouge Youth Coalition Satellite Campus, Plaquemine Post South (Louisiana)

In September, the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition (BRYC) partnered with Dow Louisiana, the Iberville Parish School Board (IPSB), and the YMCA to open its first satellite campus at the Dow Westside YMCA. The new campus in Addis, Louisiana will offer tutoring, academic mentorship, and skills development for eighth- and ninth-graders. “The mentoring component provides our students with role models and allows them to discuss real-life situations with adults who can provide perspective to assist them in their personal growth,” IPSB Superintendent Louis M. Voiron Jr. told the Plaquemine Post South. “This partnership is an example of working with the community as a whole for the betterment of our students’ educational experience.”

How First Tee of Sacramento Helps Local Kids Learn Life Skills, The Game of Golf and More, Sacramento Bee (California)

At First Tee of Sacramento afterschool and summer programs, thousands of students learn the essentials of golf while building character and life skills. First Tee’s Sacramento chapter is one of the program’s largest nationally, with more than 58,000 kids enrolled each year. Through partnerships with more than 125 local schools and programs, roughly 56,000 of those enrolled play for free. First Tee’s primary goal is to instill its nine core values of respect, courtesy, responsibility, honesty, sportsmanship, confidence, judgment, perseverance, and integrity. Anna-Marie Stouder, the mother of two teens in First Tee, told the Sacramento Bee, “Raising teenagers is hard. And so to have the extra support of an organization like First Tee, who pours into your kids and gives them these extra values of leadership and teach them skills like communication…. First Tee is more than about golf, it’s really a family.

Lebanon School District Receives Grant for Before and After School Program, KY3 (Missouri)

Thanks to a $2 million grant, the Lebanon School District in Missouri will be able to keep its before- and afterschool program running for at least another five years. Equaling out to $400,000 each year over the next five years, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant will help the Jacket SWARM program in Lebanon, Missouri pay staff wages, invest in professional development for teachers and provide STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) opportunities for students. “I was excited because that’s going to open up a lot of opportunities for our students to experience things and engage in some things that they don’t get to do during the regular school day,” Jacket SWARM director, Jaymes Wapp told KY3. The program has more 500 students enrolled in its before- and afterschool programs.

Council Member Won Announces $300K in Funding for New After-School Program and Upgrades at LIC School, Long Island City Post (New York)

With support from the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens and Primary/Intermediate School 78, New York City Council Member Julie Won secured $300,000 in funding for a new afterschool program and upgrades to the public school in Queens, New York. The majority of the funding will go toward establishing an afterschool program with the Variety Boys & Girls Club. “Thanks to Council Member Won, the children of P.S. 78 will have access to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), arts, athletics, and the myriad of programs Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens provides on a daily basis,” Costa Constantinides, CEO of the Variety Boys & Girls Club, told the Long Island City Post. Additional funding will go to technology upgrades in the school as well as additional art programming.