Weekly Media Roundup: November 24, 2021

'We're All Family Here': Columbus Community Center Pilots Program to Connect with Students, The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)

At a new afterschool program in Columbus, Ohio, seventh- and eighth-graders get academic support, work on goal-setting, play sports, connect with mentors and more. The program is the result of a partnership between Actions that Matter for Youth, Woodward Park Middle School and Woodward Park Community Center and is funded through the American Rescue Plan. “We’re building trust and long-term relationships. It’s about building up the student as a whole person,” DeAndra Harrison, the founder of Actions that Matter for Youth, told the Columbus Dispatch. “Middle school is such a key age and a tough time. But everyone is really seen as equal here."

Wood River Afterschool Program Provides Fun While Learning, Grand Island Independent (Nebraska)

Each afternoon at Wood River Elementary School’s 21^st Century Community Learning Centers program in Nebraska, students participate in a variety of art, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and sports clubs as well as receive homework support. High school students help staff the program and assist with developing new activities geared to engage and educate the younger students. “Most of what we plan for our club activities is actually planned by our high school staff,” Program Coordinator Stephanie Shearer told the Grand Island Independent.  Due to adult staffing shortages, Shearer depends on the support of the teenagers while also noting they are wonderful role models for the elementary school students.

Participation in Colorado After School Nutrition Programs Increased in 2020, Kiowa County Press (Colorado)

Despite school and program closures during the pandemic, Colorado’s Afterschool Nutrition Programs provided afterschool meals to an additional 37,000 students per day in 2020 compared to 2019. Crystal FitzSimons, Director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs at Food Research & Action Center noted that afterschool programs quickly responded to the need in their communities by providing remote educational support, curbside food pickups and meal deliveries to families. “[Afterschool programs] were doing virtual, either activities or they were sending activities home with families to do,” FitzSimons told the Kiowa County Press. “And so they were trying to support educational enrichment at a time when so many kids were experiencing learning disruptions.”

Boys and Girls Clubs in Las Vegas Offer Mental Health Counseling, Las Vegas Review-Journal (Nevada)

Last month, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada launched group therapy in its Las Vegas-area afterschool programs. The initiative aims to help children process their emotions and develop social and emotional skills, as well as to screen students for mental health challenges and provide individual and family counseling when needed. “Transportation is the biggest challenge because for a working family; how do they get the child to the [therapy] appointment on a regular basis?,” CEO Andy Bischel told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “They can get them maybe once or twice, but it’s consistency that really is important. If we bring the counselors in, we eliminate that because we have the kids in the clubs.”