Summer Youth Program Provides Educational Learning Opportunities
Participants engaging in various activities throughout our summer program. Faces are covered for privacy purposes.
This summer, our program staff ran an eight week program for children ages 7-13 with no funding. US Together did not have a grant for this program, but as case managers identified a need within the community, they knew they wanted to create something new. This program started with kids whose parents are in our other programming.
Our case managers have seen what a challenge the past year has been for kids, especially those with limited English proficiency. All of the kids we worked with went to Columbus City Schools, and they had extremely limited interactions outside of their homes. Many of them live chaotic lives and are forced to take on many responsibilities that a child should not have.
A group of our case managers teamed up with four students from The Ohio State University’s College of Education for a short-term field placement and US Together’s summer education VISTA member to provide children with this summer program.
Kids attended the group two days a week, participating in one large group on Thursday, and one small group on either Tuesday or Friday. Program coordinators played games, read with the children, and hosted educational activities. Some skills the kids learned were how to read simple music notes, how to keep beats, and how insulation works in arctic animals. Kids first read with a coordinator, and then they had free time to play on the computers and engage in their activity of choice.
Throughout the summer, the children we worked with learned a lot, engaged with their peers, and advanced their English language abilities.