RSHM LIFE Center – At the RSHM LIFE Center, academic help is given in the Center’s Learning Lab (initiated in 2020) and After School programs. Approximately 150 children benefit from the extra assistance in reading, writing and math skills they receive from adult instructors, who give both individual and small group instruction to the students. The RSHM LIFE Center’s mission is to help the children see their own potential and bridge the educational divide they often find from their peers in school. Kids’ Club has given financial support to these programs, which make a difference in the academic lives of so many of our local youth.
Summer Literacy Program for Rising First, Second and Third Graders – In 2015, Kids’ Club awarded a grant to the Foundation for the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns to pilot a summer literacy program. It was designed to assist local rising first grade students, not yet reading on grade level, maintain or improve their reading and writing skills over the summer, a time when many new readers are in jeopardy of a diminishment of those developing skills. The program, which met for six hours a week for three weeks, was comprised of 15 students and three TUFSD teachers. The lessons took place at John Paulding School, and included, among other things, refreshers on reading strategies, decoding words, writing organization and grammar. After the success of that pilot, Kids’ Club was happy to support an expanded Summer Literacy Program in 2016 and for many summers since. The program now includes rising second and third graders and is housed at W.L. Morse Elementary School.
Warner Library, “Listening to Learn”, “Warner is Wired for Homework” and “Warner is Wired for Learning” Programs – Kids’ Club’s funding of “Listening to Learn” enabled Warner Library to purchase audio books in an MP3/Playaway or CD format, so that children who do not have other access to iPods or listening devices could learn from audio books. Through support of the “Warner is Wired for Homework” and “Warner is Wired for Learning” initiatives, Kids’ Club underwrote the purchase of laptops and iPads for the library’s Children’s Room, enabling children who may not have such devices at home to use them at the library, thereby allowing underserved children to compete on a more level playing field with more affluent classmates. In 2020, Kids’ Club funded Warner’s replacement of Early Learning software, which is geared towards children ages 2-8 and features localized learning activities in the areas of math, geography, social studies, science, art and more.