North Fairmount Community Center
1826 Baltimore Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45225
NFCC Afterschool Program
The North Fairmount Community Center After School Program provides elementary school children from very low income families with educational support, physical exercise, food, emotional support, a sense of community, and safety from the end of the school day until they have adult supervision at home. We anticipate serving 30+ children daily in this 5-day per week program. Our goals are to improve the math and reading scores of the children and to teach the children about their community through projects. The program includes a meal and snacks as well as physical activity in the gym. Outcomes will be measured through parent and child evaluations (oral for the pre-reading young children) at the end of each semester and improvement on report cards in reading and math. Program staff and volunteers will conduct the program.
Program Goals:
Quantitative goals and Measurements:
1. At least 30 children will participate in the program at least 3 days per week during both semesters. Attendance records for each child will be kept daily. The parent(s) of children who are frequently absent will be contacted to see if they might need help with transportation or any other situation in which we could provide assistance..
2. Among the children who attend the afterschool program regularly, at the end of each semester, 85% of parents will find the program helpful to their child’s well-being. We will request that parents complete evaluation forms at the end of each semester re satisfaction with the program, assessment of the helpfulness to their children, and suggestions for improvement.
3. 75% of the children who attend at least 3 days per week will show improvement in their reading and math grades at the end of the second semester. We will request to see end-of-semester report cards to compare grades at the end of the second semester for reading, math and other subjects identified by the afterschool program personnel. During the pilot, we were able to obtain some of this data, so we do think that it is possible.
4. At the end of each semester, 90% of the children will report that they enjoy being in the program and if not, how we can improve it for them. These responses will be examined to see if responses differ by gender or age so that issues can be addressed specifically.
5. At the end of each semester, 75% of the children will report that they know more about their neighborhood and will be asked to provide some specific information presented through the projects related to the North Fairmount community.
Qualitative goals:
1. Inspiring pride in each child and recognition of their individual talents.
2. Teaching the children to work collaboratively on projects, in games, etc.
3. Exposing the children to the world outside their neighborhood through field trips and explorations.
4. Improving the quality of family life for parents and children by providing reliable, safe supervision for the children.
Program Results:
The 2022-2023 program was our first full school-year and data collection efforts were not as successful as planned. This year we will focus on a method to directly elicit evaluation forms from parents and to increase our access to report cards. Parents often do not come into the classrooms to pick up their children – either an NFCC staff member drives the kids home, a parent meets their child in the parking lot, or the child lives close enough (and is old enough) to walk safely home. Ideally, we will collect more complete evaluation data from more parents in person by requiring one short meeting with the staff at the end of each semester.
Twenty children were enrolled in the pilot program (January – May 2022). Although the responses from parents and children were very positive, attendance averaged only 5.7 children per day. This past school year, however, our program operated for all four quarters with 37 children registered. Daily attendance averaged 23.4 children.
We received report cards from more than one grading period from 16 of the 37 children registered (43%). Of these 16 children, 75% had an increase in grade in one or more subjects across the year. Two of the children who did not – because they could not - improve their grades had straight As throughout the school year (13%).
The children completed their evaluations (some with assistance) at the end of the school year. Seventy-two percent reported that they liked coming to the afterschool program “all of the time;” no child reported “never” wanting to come. When asked “What is your favorite thing about the afterschool program,” 39% responded “the gym”; 28% responded “everything”. One-third of the children reported that what they like the most is the staff. When asked to identify what they least like about the program, the most common response was “nothing” (22%); no other response was mentioned by more than one child. One child responded that her favorite thing about the program is “being with my friends and the people who work here.” The staff will all be returning this year and will be assisted by new hires and volunteers to ensure that every child still receives the attention s/he needs.
There are currently 60 children participating in our “I Love Myself” summer camp. Most of these families have already indicated that they plan to enroll their children in the afterschool program for the 2023-2024 school year. Only 10 of these campers attended the afterschool enrichment program this past school year, so we are now planning and developing program adjustments to meet the needs of the projected increased number of children in the fall.
Although some projects did address the history and culture of the North Fairmount neighborhood, we were unable to measure the children’s knowledge last year. Simple pre/post testing can be incorporated into the 2023-2024 school year program.
Website:
http://www.nfcommunitycenter.org Amount: $20,000
Date: September 2022
