After-School Program: Community Schools Collaboration, WA

VISTA Member

 Amanda Gadian 

This year, I am serving with a non-profit based in Burien, WA called Community Schools Collaboration (CSC). CSC seeks to “partner with schools, families, and communities so that all children can thrive” (cscwa.org). For my year of service, I have been assigned to work with CSC Site Managers and staff at two elementary schools – Bow Lake and Madrona. Together, we hope to provide services and resources for the students and their families that they might not otherwise have access to.

            For the past month and a half that I have been with CSC at Bow Lake and Madrona, one of the services we have been working on is the extended day program. At each school, the extended day program begins after the school day ends at 3pm and runs until 5pm. Students check in, then receive and eat a hot meal provided by nutrition services. Following meal time, students participate in our Academic Learning Center – a period for students to receive homework help or time to work on other academic skills. The last portion of our program consists of enrichment activities, such as arts and crafts, fitness club, or “no bake bakers” club. Some students sign up for additional program activities and leave for their respective activities after meal time; such activities include soccer, Boeing Science Club, and Girls on the Run – all organized and facilitated by external organizations who have partnered with CSC.

            To support the extended day programming through CSC, I have been helping to plan and facilitate programs at both Bow Lake and Madrona. Much of the beginning has been trial and error with small, day-to-day successes. However, CSC teams at each school have been able to piece together successful program schedules and I believe that the students enrolled so far have been enjoying their time after school with CSC. Moving forward with the extended day programs, I am now looking to create a handbook of easy to follow lesson plans of our more successful activities/clubs so that the current and future CSC Site Managers, staff, and volunteers will have them as resources for ideas or even to modify and use as their own lesson plans. It is my hope that this will support Site Managers and future CSC teams by allowing them to focus their energy on more pressing matters.

            My long-term goals include researching and hopefully recruiting more partners for CSC. It would be ideal to introduce CSC and its partner schools to external partners that will be able to provide resources for students and their families this year and in the years to come. I also hope to partner with those who work in or with the schools and focus on student attendance and/or students’ academic, social, and personal success. My search has started with meeting and talking with the counselors at each school and I hope to continue collaborating from there. Although the first month and a half with Bow Lake and Madrona has felt chaotic, I am enjoying getting to know the students and to help them in any ways that I can. I am hopeful that I will be able to find and create more opportunities to give the students the support that they need to be successful.