Tag Archives: afterschool programs

Photo of the Month: Brooklyn Nets Visit Parsons Community School

Students of our Parsons Community School program pose for a photo with Brooklyn Nets trainers and community partners.

Students of our Parsons Community School program pose for a photo with Brooklyn Nets trainers and community partners.The Brooklyn Nets visited Parsons Community School for a slam dunk event! In a high-energy basketball clinic, 40 young players from four Child Center of NY sites that offer afterschool programs and summer learning camps for middle schoolers—Parsons Beacon, SONYC-QSI, SONYC-Queens United, and SONYC-CASA—got a taste of NBA-level training.

With Brooklyn Nets trainers leading the charge, participants ran drills, honed their skills, and learned the magic of teamwork. It was a day of hoops, high-fives, and future NBA stars in the making!

“The event was awesome!” said rising eighth grader Nicholas, a participant of SONYC-QSI. “It showed that I can work harder on basketball and that there is always someone else working so it’s up to me to work harder. It’s a huge thank you to Coaches Maya, Luis, and Justin,” who teach the basketball elective at Parsons and assisted with the event. Nick also thanked SONYC-QSI Program Director Rafael Florero for setting up the event and “having us all in the gym to get better and have fun.”

This wasn’t the first time the Parsons community came together and built lifetime memories through sports. Last summer, Parsons Beacon’s first-ever Parsons Football (soccer) Club emerged undefeated in the regular season and ultimately finished second among 56 teams that came from places as far flung as Argentina and France.

The Nets basketball clinic and the unforgettable Parsons Football Club season are just two examples of how our dedicated youth development professionals seek opportunities for young people to develop skills and values while having fun.

Speaking about the Nets basketball clinic, Rafael Florero said, “This event meant a lot for the youth in our community, as it showed that Parsons cares and seeks out the best possible opportunities for them. It gave those aspiring athletes a chance to train like a professional, and all participants a chance to see the values we teach every day in action.”

Special thanks to the 107th Precinct and the Department of Youth and Community Development for helping facilitate this memorable event. We know it means so much to our participants that they have a whole community who supports and roots for them!

Photo of the Month: Beating the Summer Slide with Literacy Fun

Participants of Literacy Leaders at COMPASS at P.S. 24 in Flushing build a literacy tower to beat the summer slide.

By Nicole Freudenberg
Literacy Instructor, COMPASS at P.S. 24Q

Students can lose up to two months in reading achievement and 2.6 months of math skills over a single summer. Over time, this translates to two years of learning loss by middle school. This decline in academic skills, which is especially pronounced for children from low-income families, is known as the summer slide. The Child Center of NY’s summer programs for elementary and middle schoolers, made possible with funding from the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development and the generosity of private funders, are here to help.

At P.S. 24, where I serve as a literacy instructor, we are combatting the summer slide with fun literacy games for students in grades K-5. Participants in grades K-1 are focusing on sight words through games and Disney read-aloud books. That’s because if children recognize sight words—the 220 words that account for 60 percent of all the words in print—by the end of first grade, they are well on their way to fluency and being on grade level for literacy. The ability to read at or above grade level by third grade is a significant predictor of school success and high school graduation.

This month’s photo of the month shows one of the fun literacy games our children love: the sight word tower. This game provides children an opportunity to build their teamwork skills by working together to build a cup tower and supporting each other if someone is struggling to read a word. The game is played in teams, and the aim is to build your team’s tower first. To build your tower, each team member must read the word on the cup first. The first team to build their tower wins. (Teams must watch out, though; if your tower falls, your team needs to start all over again!) As you can see by the smiling faces, “making learning fun” isn’t just a slogan at P.S. 24!

Grades 2-5 are taking small word board games, such as Boggle and Tapple, and turning them into full classroom games. Children work in teams to win each round, which helps build teamwork and vocabulary. Students will also be playing games such as Taxi: Each team has a driver, and the driver’s team has to explain a place using details in order to get the driver to guess where they are going. This game helps students learn to use describing words and smaller details to build vocabulary as well as critical thinking. These are skills that can be used when having to retell a story or using evidence when writing paper.

By making continuous learning fun and part of summer routines, we help children retain knowledge, and even achieve learning gains, so they are poised to succeed in the upcoming school year—all while building summer memories to last a lifetime.

Fun Friday: PAW’s Got Talent

Want to know how much fun you could be having at work? Check out this “PAW’s Got Talent” flyer for our afterschool program at the Preparatory Academy for Writers PAW Jam performance showcase. Our youth development staff at the program decided to have a laugh and photoshopped their faces onto an image of “America’s Got Talent” judges — and the youth participants loved it!

pictured from left to right:
Christopher Thompson, Media & Music Production
Vanessa Hazzard, Assistant Director
Charles Anderson, Principal, Preparatory Academy for Writers
Jessica Behr, Education Coordinator
Carolyn Johnson, Program Director

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Ballroom Basix Offers More than Fun and Fancy Footwork at PAW

“We felt like stars!” says eighth-grader Cindy Jean-Francois, a former participant of Ballroom Basix (BBX) at M.S. 283 Preparatory Academy for Writers’ afterschool program, “Play After Work” (PAW). Creating opportunities for our students to build self-confidence and shine is just one of the many facets of The Child Center’s afterschool-enrichment programs — and it’s just one of the benefits of this innovative activity, now in its second year at PAW.

“Dance, and partner dancing specifically, has a huge impact on social and emotional learning,” says The Child Center’s PAW Program Director Carolyn Johnson. “By its very nature, partner dancing is about teamwork. It teaches our kids about working with a partner, about being respectful of your partner.” And, as a result, “parents and educators herald BBX as a unique deterrent to bullying,” says founder and artistic director Sidney “Dr. Dance” Grant, who launched BBX in a single Harlem middle school in 2008 and now operates it at more than 100 schools across NYC’s five boroughs. Continue reading

Happy Anniversary, COMPASS at P.S. 273!

Students of COMPASS PS 273 present speeches

Students of COMPASS PS 273 present speechesBy Manisha Singh
Director, COMPASS at P.S. 273

The Child Center of NY will be celebrating a huge and meaningful anniversary next month. This December marks the 20th anniversary of the agency’s Youth Development division. With dozens of sites and programs, ranging from afterschool services to alternative high schools and internships, YD serves 10,000 children and young adults annually, preparing them for adulthood with the skills, support, and confidence to compete and succeed at school and in life. It’s been a privilege for me to be involved with one of those programs for the past four years. Continue reading

Child Center Educator Earns Prestigious Award

The Partnership for Afterschool Education pasesetter2016Amanda_09(PASE) held its annual PASEsetter Awards Benefit at Cipriani 42nd Street on February 25 to recognize the commitment, energy, and creativity of five outstanding New York City afterschool educators and one champion. Among them was Amanda Etienne, associate director of youth development for The Child Center of NY.

During the benefit, award recipients had the opportunity to share their journeys with an audience of more than 400 people. Amanda spoke warmly about The Child Center community and its positive impact on New York City’s youth.

“Our organizational culture produces some of the most high-energy, dedicated, compassionate and passionate youth work professionals who go beyond expectations to meet the needs of our clients,” she said. Continue reading


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