United Way & BankNewport Give $300K to Newport Afterschool Programs
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Anthony Maione (left) president and CEO of United Way of Rhode Island and Sandra J. Pattie, president and CEO of BankNewport watch students at Newport Family & Child Opportunity Zone at Pell Elementary School create art using recyclable materials at an out-of-school time program tour during April school vacation.
The funding will support strategic collaborations between Newport Community School (NCS) and Newport Family & Child Opportunity Zone (NFCOZ) for such goals as keeping students engaged in learning during school vacation.
“United Way has been committed to developing out-of-school time initiatives in Newport for over a decade,” said Anthony Maione, president and CEO of United Way of Rhode Island. “We’re excited to partner with BankNewport to maximize our investments and help hundreds of children stay the course with their education to prepare for successful careers and lives as adults.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAccording to 2013 data from the Rhode Island Department of Education, 58 percent of the Newport’s students were low-income and only 74 percent graduated from high school in four years. These figures underscore the city’s candidacy for funding targeted towards additional learning opportunities that encourage increased engagement.
NCS and NFCOZ will utilize the funding to collaboratively create an out-of-school learning system to support students from elementary through high school. By providing academic support and enrichment through experiential and hands-on learning opportunities outside of the traditional classroom, along with promoting social and emotional development, the two organizations aim to better prepare students to advance to the next grade with their peers.
Lilly, a Pell Elementary School student shows off the seedling she grew in a hydroponic gardening workshop during April school vacation by participating in a United Way and BankNewport funded out-of-school time learning program.
At Pell Elementary School, NFCOZ supports afterschool enrichment focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning, transition programs, social and emotional learning, vacation camps and a summer learning academy. Through NCS, students at Thompson Middle School experience hands-on STEM programming, academic support, and transition programs that assist youth advancing grades. At Rogers High School for older students, NCS provides Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO) with a special focus on STEM-related fields and offers critical transitional support for those moving from high school to college through a partnership with the Community College of Rhode Island.
Such an endeavor is an example of the “Second Shift” of Supportive Adults alluded to by GoLocal MINDSETTER™ and education specialist Julia Steiny whereby children who are further guided in learning outside of school hours are more likely to perform better academically and remain in school longer than those who do not.
In a similar “second shift” effort, United Way of Rhode Island also supports summer learning in Newport through the Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative (HSLI), which reaches a total of 1,500 youth in 11 communities statewide. A public-private partnership between Hasbro, Inc., the R.I. General Assembly and UWRI has resulted in an investment of more than $70,000 for summer learning in Newport. That effort reaches 400 children to curtail summer learning loss by engaging students in hands-on service learning over the summer. Independent research has shown that of Newport students who participated in the HSLI in 2013, 14 percent made gains in literacy and 15 percent made gains in math.
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The data below reflects the 2012-13 academic year as provided by the Rhode Island Dept of Education. Values have been rounded to the nearest whole percent.
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