Arab American Family Support Center Among Afterschool Programs Keeping Kids On Track
Kelly Wilson, 13, admits that if it weren’t for the Apple Arts afterschool program, she’d likely be dabbling in more dangerous crafts than creating sewing patterns.
“It keeps me out of trouble. It keeps me out of the park!” she says, waving a hand in the general direction of Tompkins Square, which is just across the street and rife with temptation.
Wilson and a dozen other children ages 5 to 13 are gathered inside Huntington House, a Women’s Prison Association residence that reunites homeless women with their children, and also provides day care and recreational activities for kids — such as Apple Arts, which gives free weekly afterschool workshops to youths living in challenging conditions.
Those challenging conditions are nowhere to be seen on a recent weeknight, however. The roomful of youngsters is the picture of normalcy. They draw patterns (which, over the course of five weeks, will become stuffed animals) and giggle wildly while dancing to Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair,” seemingly without a care in the world.
Over in Brooklyn, Samouna Saadouli, a Cobble Hill mother, meets her daughters Narmeen and Shayma, ages 8 and 6, at the Arab American Family Community Center on Court St.
“Let me see your homework,” she demands, and the girls pull out their worksheets, which their mother reads over before letting them go play with their cousins.
“It’s great to have this here,” she says, referring to the center’s afterschool tutoring program. “I don’t understand their homework sometimes, but the people here can give them help.”
There’s a great need for services like this to keep kids on track after the school bell rings for the day
The Afterschool Alliance reports that more than 15 million schoolchildren across the country are on their own after school. Compare that to New York, where 779,281 children in grades K-12 are responsible for taking care of themselves after school. That means one in four is a latchkey kid.
Consider this:
* Teens who don’t participate in afterschool programs are nearly three times more likely to skip class.
* They are also three times more likely to use drugs, drink, smoke and have sex.
* On school days, peak time for youths to either commit a crime or be a victim of a crime is between 3 and 6 p.m.
* Most kids spend 80% of their waking hours not in school.
* More than 500,000 NYC students in low-income neighborhoods rely on community-based after-school programs.
“When kids regularly participate in high-quality and engaging activities after 3, they improve their school attendance and achievement and engage more deeply in learning,” says Lucy N. Friedman, president, the After-School Corporation.
“Kids and families need this help more than ever, especially when so many schools have had to cut their afterschool budgets.”
Good Shepherd Services’ Red Hook Beacon Community Center — one of 80 city Beacon Centers aiding kids and adults in underserved communities — lost 50 slots from their afterschool program as a result of budget cuts.
Reinstating those groups, which included 25 first- and second-graders, and 25 third- and fourth-graders, will cost $40,000.
“We have an enormous waiting list, and we could easily create two new groups, but we don’t have the funds for it,” says Jennifer Zanger, who oversees the Brooklyn program at PS 15. “And because of the cuts, we are always short on supplies. “This is not baby-sitting,” she adds. “It’s development. And the transformation we see in these young people is really remarkable; we’ve had those who were not so successful in school, or who were really struggling in home, just grow into themselves … and that translates into success in different areas of their lives.”
Nicole Lyn Pesce
NY Daily News