Federally funded after-school programs help Casper kids
ANDREA FALKENHAGEN Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Sunday, January 11, 2004 12:00 am
For children 50 years ago, the end of the school day might have meant going home to discuss the day's events with their mothers over a glass of milk and chocolate-chip cookies.
Today's reality is quite different, particularly for the 15 million "latchkey children" identified by the 2000 U.S. Census who come home to an empty home on any given afternoon.
But this unsupervised time can lead to unsafe situations, according to Natrona County Safe Schools Program Administrator Wayne Beatty. Everything from precursors to delinquent behavior, substance abuse and early sexual activity can happen during such hours, he said.
Experts agree that most youth crime occurs between the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., when many kids are not engaged in any organized activities and are often unsupervised.
"One teenage boy I spoke with referred to (that time window) as 'using time,'" said Pamela Reamer Williams, executive director for the 12-24 Club, the home base for many 12-step recovery programs in the Casper area.
Nationwide groups, such as the Washington, D.C.-based Afterschool Alliance, are concerned that President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2005 will not fully fund afterschool programs at the $2 billion level authorized by the No Child Left Behind Act. The budget is expected to be submitted to Congress in early February,
This federal funding is allocated to individual states through the Department of Education and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program.
States then distribute the money, through grants, to various community afterschool programs that provide academic enrichment, as well as drug and violence prevention programs.
Congress appropriated $1 billion for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative in FY 2004, an amount the Afterschool Alliance has declared "grossly inadequate."
Due to concerns about the funding for these programs for next year, nonprofit organizations and 14 women members of the U.S. Senate have sent a letter to the president urging him to increase the funding.
In Wyoming, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative helps to provide funds for afterschool programs like the C.A.S.P.E.R Center, with programs run at both Evansville and McKinley elementary schools.
"With the C.A.S.P.E.R Center programs, parents - no matter what their financial need is - can send their kids to get enrichment for science and math and reading, plus be under excellent supervision," Beatty said.
Kitty Huff, the McKinley site coordinator, said that children are separated into groups based on age, and receive help with math and reading homework every day. There are other activities as well.
"We do homework and after that I like to do stuff on the computer," said 11-year-old Jasmine Gillenwater, who is bused to the program from Bar Nunn Elementary School.
Her favorite activity, she said, is ceramics. She's made a frog and hedgehog.
"We even got to do Tai-bo one time," she said, adding that it was really hard.
Austin Davison, 10, said he gets a lot of homework help in math and reading through the program, but has the most fun playing computer games.
"We get to watch movies sometimes, too," added his sister, Crystal, 11. Her favorite afterschool game, she said, is Monopoly, which she can play with other kids or with the room supervisor.
"These programs have close ties to traditional schools, because the centers partner with a school to create safe islands for kids - but we don't want to give them more of the same," said Jill Naylor-Yarger, a Cheyenne-based consultant for the 21st Century State Incentive Grant program.
For this reason, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers programs also include physical activities and a snack-time component, and also other learning opportunities.
Forty-five 21st Century Community Learning Centers afterschool programs exist in Wyoming, according to Naylor-Yarger.