After-school programs celebrated across the country
Drop-In Learning Center in New London and Montville Youth Service Bureau participate
As the DJ started playing “Wobble,” some kids went from milling about to participating in the line dance, joined by Montville police Officer Karen Aleshire. Other students donned oversized costume sunglasses to enter the photo booth.
It was a lot more fun than doing homework.
They were at the Montville Youth Service Bureau, one of a few local after-school program providers to participate in the national Lights on Afterschool initiative on Thursday.
Barbara Lockhart, director of youth services for the town, said it’s the kids’ favorite event of the year — and a way to celebrate after-school programming.
It’s a “cheap way after school to have a safe place for her to be,” Mike English said of his sixth-grade daughter, Josie. And when he picks her up about 5:30 p.m., all her homework is done.
Asked about her thoughts on the program, Josie’s first comment was, “I like that because there’s no phones people actually socialize, and you can make way more friends from different schools.” (The program only
allows phones on Fridays.)
The dance party was one of more than 8,300 events planned across the country as part of the 19th annual Lights on Afterschool, a rally the Afterschool Alliance organizes to highlight the need for investment in after-school programs.
According to a news release, these events included inflatable planetariums, robot battles, glow-in-the-dark bowling, circuitry centers and cooking contests.
“People are seeing firsthand the skills students hone and talents they develop at their (after-school) programs, which keep kids safe and inspire them to learn through fun, educational, hands-on activities,” Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, said in the news release. “Unfortunately, there aren’t nearly enough (after-school) programs to meet the need.”
The organization stresses that most people support funding for these programs, which often have waiting lists to get in.
Reona Dyess, executive director of the Drop-In Learning Center in New London, remembers growing up with latchkey kids, those who are given a key but enter an empty house after school.
“It’s important that your child have a safe and nourishing environment,” she said. “They need to go someplace where they know this is for them, they’re able to get their homework done.”
The center, also known as The Drop, partners with New England Science & Sailing Foundation and Expressiones Cultural Center for programming.
The center celebrated Lights on Afterschool with a dinner provided by the New London Rotary, a Peruvian dance performance from students and a brief keynote from a former Drop-In Learning Center student.
Ayzel Morales, 19, said the staff at the center helped him build his character and find his confidence. He said they inspired him to get involved in social activism and advocate for himself.
Morales, who went to the center from fourth to eighth grade, is a student at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point and member of the NAACP.
Milagros Agreda is a parent of two boys, ages 11 and 10, who have been going to the center for about six years, and who dance in the Peruvian troupe, Yawar Llajta, that performed Thursday.
“I see they have structure, I see they’re caring, loving,” Agreda said of the center. “It’s a family.”
Anne Scheibner, who was present at the event, founded the Drop-In Learning Center in 1970, and while there have been changes over the years, she still sees “the same spirit, the same grass-roots sense of community development.”
The Drop has been located at St. James Episcopal Church on Federal Street for the past year, after three years at Mitchell College.