From vaping, the cost of school supplies to cellphone policies, the WTOP team is studying up on hot-button topics in education across the D.C. region. Follow on air and online in our series “WTOP Goes Back to School”.
D.C. parents and their school-age children spent time on Saturday browsing a gymnasium full of information about more than 120 after-school programs available free to the District’s young people.
“You have dance, you have tutoring, you have football, you have writing, you have performing arts. All of the above and more,” said Shontia Lowe, executive director, Office of Out of School Time Grants and Youth Outcomes, in the office of the D.C. Deputy Mayor for Education.
Recently, the city agreed to spend $25 million to fund numerous nonprofit groups that conduct the after-school programs.
One of the popular programs is Words, Beats & Life, a more than 20-year-old after-school program organized by St. Stephen and the Incarnational Episcopal Church in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. The classes are held in the church building and also conducted both in school buildings and online virtually.
“The programs we currently offer and have offered over time have been break dancing, DJing, graffiti, chess, poetry, photography, podcast classes … comic book creating, African drumming, step classes, entrepreneurial classes,” said Javier Starks, site coordinator for Words, Beats & Life.
The after-school programs are not all fun and games. Among the programs are those in which tutors work with children to complete their homework assignments.
“We have teachers that we pay to tutor them one on one for those two hours live or we can go online and treat each youth as an individual case,” said Amos Drummond, operational manager of the Positive Focus Foundation. “I was one of these kids who received help … I was exposed to geometry which led me to become a chemist,” Drummond said.
Parents and kids eagerly explored the tables, collecting pamphlets and signing up for more information.
“Because I’m a parent that is why I’m here I need my daughter to know … what’s available to us to be able to get her a better education … I want her to be in the STEM programs, I want her to get into the arts,” said Taseeta Samuel, a Ward 7 resident who visited the after-school fair with her fifth grade daughter.
Find information online about D.C.’s numerous after school programs at learn24.dc.gov.
“We know for a fact that when students attend programs after school they have increased attendance, improvement in their grades and they develop, generally speaking holistically as a young person,” Lowe said.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
