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El Rito, New Mexico, Family Learning Center. The Family Learning Center has an ongoing commitment to El Rito, a community in the Mesa Verde region of Northern New Mexico. At the Center, after-school and summer programs are the primary targets for children and youth. Currently, 192 children and youth are served at the Center. Activities range from traditional arts to computer lab instruction, all funded by Save the Children.
The Center provides a safe and stimulating place for children and youth that meets educational and social needs and an intergenerational environment for young children and older youth alike. It focuses on the need for healthy alternatives to the unemployment factors that threaten the community, and it serves as a central meeting place for the social, cultural, and educational activities of many community groups. Children benefit academically and socially from the ongoing projects at the Center, especially from the tutoring program that operates during the school year.
Chinle, Arizona, Youth Development Program. Chinle is a community in Arizona of approximately 5,100 people, of which 2,700 are youth. Among the youth population, it is estimated that almost one-half are involved in either substance abuse or gangs. Chinle's Youth Development Program aims to help youth develop positive relationships among themselves and with adults, especially with their parents. The program also promotes self-esteem and addresses issues that teenagers face, such as drugs, gangs, employment skills, puberty, and other topics.
Youth programs attempt to instill pride by presenting alternatives to destructive choices. According to Save the Children's volunteers in Chinle, community members strongly support the program because it improves the lives of children and addresses the needs of future leaders. Locally, the program supports a Learning Center and networks with the Navajo AmeriCorps and the tribal Division of Youth Programs. About 500 youth take part in educational and recreational activities, including intergenerational activities, sports, survival camps, and peer tutoring.
Zuni, New Mexico. Currently operating in both elementary schools, the middle school, and in one high school in the Zuni School District, the after-school enrichment activities in Zuni, New Mexico, reach 500 sponsored children and their families. As a model family literacy effort, the program includes a ten-year-old Family Book Bag Project in which families check out bags of books to take home, and they attend guest authors and illustrators workshops, community read-a-thons, and the Book Publishing Project. In addition, students are guided through a project found on the I*EARN (International Educational Resource Network) Web page in which children from around the world exchange cultural understanding and knowledge. About 40-50 children are now participating in a new Summer Arts and Reading Program that promotes recreational reading and other literacy-based activities.
According to the coordinator, the training provided through the Rural Initiative has been a key component: she has learned new strategies and ideas for activities and use of space and made connections to other similar programs across the country. The coordinator attributes the increased bonding among families and teachers to training in child development. Training in data collection and evaluation methods has been extremely useful to the staff in documenting the success of enrichment activities with the help of participating children. This information will help the program to reinforce and communicate its success.
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[Shalimar Learning Center]