Project Director: Elisha Stevenson
990 Spring Garden St.
Suite 601
Phone: 215-221-6900, x12
estevenson@educationworks.org

County:  Camden

Servicing School District:  Camden City Public Schools

CCLC Sites: Woodrow Wilson HS, Mastery East Camden MS, Mastery McGraw ED, Mastery North Camden ES

Partners: Camden City School District, Mastery Schools of Camden

Serving Grade Level: 4 through 12

No. of Students to be served: 200

No. of Adults to be served: 100

Times of Services: Afterschool, 3:00-6:00p.m., Summer, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Abstract:

EducationWorks (EW) proposes to continue its program at Woodrow Wilson High School, Mastery East Camden Middle School, Mastery McGraw Elementary School and Mastery North Camden Elementary School All four of the schools are geographically contiguous and form a feeder pattern. This arrangement gives EW the opportunity to work with families who have children in different schools and provides an opportunity to remain connected to students over a long period of time. EW has implemented the Visual and Performing arts theme at the sites and will continue to do so. EW is a licensed childcare provider at McGraw and East Camden Middle, Wilson and will complete the childcare licensure process at North Camden upon formal permissions granted by NJDOE.

Our program will continue to include dance, music, creative writing including poetry and spoken word, visual arts such as mosaic arts, painting, ceramics, and sports and other health and wellness/recreation activities. We have been successful in creating strong community partnerships, in developing our presence in the schools and in providing high quality youth programs. Additionally, new funding opportunities from Roma Bank and the Investors Bank have allowed us to expand our professional development offerings for staff.

In order to enhance program effectiveness and improve student outcomes, EW will continue to align the afterschool programs with the school day, collaborate with school staff, train program staff in action research and sustain a strong advisory board. School day teachers will continue to provide academic remediation to students after school. Action research will continue to be used as it is an effective tool in improving programming. Staff members and stakeholders, including new North Camden program staff, will meet on a monthly basis to serve as "critical friends." This year we will continue to leverage the partnerships already developed and we are adding new partnerships to provide additional programming with collaborators such as the YMCA of Burlington County, Vetri Community Partnership, Hispanic Family Center and Rutgers SnapEd.  These relationships have bolstered support for more robust and some free programs for our participants and will be sustained beyond the grant.

Summer programs have provided enriching and enjoyable activities to youth. EW will continue to provide summer programming to Elementary and middle school students will participate in two physical activities, each twice a week, for an hour and in inquiry-based activities that will initiate in the first week and be guided by student discussions. Our high school programming will center on workforce development and career exploration and will provide programming to students in summer school and rising 9th graders in the Summer Bridge program. Summer Bridge workshops will cover the areas of study skills, peer pressure, bullying prevention, and communication. For high school youth, we will offer a career exploration and work-readiness training program.