Weekly Media Roundup: November 26, 2025

Peoria’s Friendship House Receives State Grant for After School Programs, WMBD Radio (Illinois)

On Monday, Illinois State Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth visited the Peoria’s Friendship House afterschool program to announce a $300,000 state grant to help the organization manage rising costs. “We’re trying to continue to provide strong and adequate programming.  And if we’re going to do that, we’re going to need a collective of buckets from everyone, and that’s just what it takes,” Friendship House President Marcellus Sommerville told WMBD Radio. The program aims to reduce youth violence in central Illinois by giving teens a safe place to go after school and connecting them with job training opportunities.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta Secures Funding for Youth Center in Scotts Valley, Fresno Bee (California)

A new 7,500-square-foot facility will enable the Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County to serve more students in its afterschool program, which currently has a waitlist. The new facility’s construction is funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Community Development Facilities Program grant. “The Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County do excellent work to enable young people to excel, especially at the Joe & Linda Aliberti Clubhouse in Scotts Valley,” U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta told the Fresno Bee. “However, their afterschool programs continue to grow, and their resources are stretched thin. This significant federal investment for a new youth center in Scotts Valley will provide our children with an improved, state-of-the-art, and bigger clubhouse to play, exercise and receive academic and social support.”

New Harlem Grown Afterschool Curriculum Roots Students in Farming and Food Justice, Columbia Spectator (New York)

At 14 agricultural facilities across Central Harlem, students in Harlem Grown’s free afterschool and summer programs are growing organic fruits and vegetables, cooking healthy recipes, and learning about the principles of food justice. The program was founded in 2023 to address high rates of food insecurity in the community while empowering students with hands-on learning experiences. “The work that Harlem Grown is doing is planting these seeds early for students to be able to grow into this knowledge and embrace it as they develop their professional lives,” Lehman College professor of health promotion and nutrition sciences Kate Burt told the Columbia Spectator. “So I think it’s really important to start that early.”

Phoenix After-School Program Helps Students Tap Into Creative Side, Arizona’s Family (Arizona)

For the second year in row, students in the ArtasticArt afterschool program at Cartwright Elementary in Phoenix are giving back by sewing holiday pillows for families in need at UMOM’s emergency shelter and affordable housing complex. Students chose UMOM because one of the students’ families utilized the organization’s services.  ArtasticArt aims to expose students to a wide variety of artistic mediums while also teaching them about art history. “We really dive into the art itself, and the students really enjoy that opportunity after school to be creative and express that side of them,” co-founder Edith Eubank-Cummings told Arizona’s Family.