At Maple Elementary School in Ventura County, school has finished for the day.
Some students are being given a snack and starting the next part of their day – after school enrichment.
For many of those here – and many like them – for the best part of two years, learning was switched to online, during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Now, this new after-school enrichment program is providing extra support for those who may have fallen behind.
The program is called Find My Genius, and is similar to a summer camp program the YMCA has been offering for kids who weren’t reading at grade level.
New State funding from the Expanded Learning Program has enabled the YMCA program to expand year round, and Megan Glynn, Chief Development Officer for Southeast Ventura County YMCA said, it is designed to help close the learning gap due to COVID.
Glynn said that the curriculum focuses on physical fitness, and social and emotional learning – as well as homework support.
The free Find My Genius Pilot program is taking place after school in the Conejo valley unified School District and will expand to the Las Virgenes School Unified District in the Fall.
Two hundred Title One English language learner and foster youth began the program last month and the students here today certainly give the program the thumbs up.
The number of children in the program with increase from 240 to 400, this summer.
