Weekly Media Roundup: September 4, 2019

Expanding ROC Kids Read Literacy Program at Rec Centers, Rochester First (New York)

This fall, more than 200 students will strengthen their literacy skills at afterschool programs in recreation centers throughout Rochester, New York. Spearheaded by Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, the ROC Kids Read Literacy Program helps children learn to read through hands-on games and activities. “We can always do more and better. But doing something and working to make a difference in the students today is as important as planning for the students tomorrow,” Commissioner of Recreation and Youth Services Daniele Lyman-Torres told Rochester First.

Boys & Girls Club Looking to Double Programs Offered to Teenagers, KDKA-TV (Pennsylvania)

Each year, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania serve approximately 1,000 teens through afterschool and summer programs. This year, they are hoping to serve twice as many teens through the new programs they are offering, including a Healthy Lifestyles program, a Teen Workforce Development Academy, and an Artificial Intelligence Pathways Institute. In the latter, students are working with professionals from PPG Industries to design an adaptive spacecraft. Sophomore Gogan Phuyal told KDKA-TV, “I want to be an astronaut in the future, and [in this program] I get the perfect opportunity to do a project on what I’m passionate about and I can present it to PPG. This is really exciting.”

Kids to Try on Building Trades, Journal Gazette (Indiana)

Thanks to a partnership between diverse organizations including Northeast Indiana Building Trades, Ivy Tech Community College Northeast, and the city of Fort Wayne, more than 3,000 students will have access to career and technical education this year. People in the building trades will work with students in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Fort Wayne’s afterschool program to expose them to carpentry, plumbing, steam fitting, ironwork and more. The program aims to help students explore career paths as well as respond to the shortage of skilled trades workers in the community. “I think what we've seen today is it really does take a community to build a skilled workforce,” Jerrilee Mosier, Ivy Tech’s chancellor, told the Journal Gazette.

How Beyond the Bars is Helping Philly’s Youth Find Their Voice, WXPN (Pennsylvania)

For the past five years, Beyond the Bars has helped Philadelphia students impacted by incarceration express themselves through music. In the afterschool program, students who have a family member who is incarcerated or have been incarcerated themselves study the fundamentals of songwriting, learn to play instruments and use recording equipment and rehearse for live performances. Through music and mentorship, the program hopes to create a space for students to heal from trauma and learn more about themselves and their potential. “What we try to do is make sure people feel safe here… that they feel a sense of community here, that they feel a sense of family here, that they feel good about themselves here, and they feel good about their self-efficacy,” Co-Executive Director Matt Kerr told WXPN.