Many of the Rotarians attending last Friday’s meeting had never heard of Access After School. Its new executive director, John Quinn, wants to change that. Quinn spoke at the club meeting sharing a wealth of information about this valley-wide program that provides after school support for children in elementary and middle schools from Basalt to Rifle.
Started in 2003, Access After School (AAS) serves almost 900 students each year in school-based enrichment activities and homework help throughout the year. That’s 23% of students in Roaring Fork and Garfield RE-2 school districts.
Quinn outlined the rich array of interest areas that students enjoy – cooking, guitar lessons, cursive, dungeons and dragons, chess, and more – in addition to bilingual homework help. He said AAS offers everything but organized sports, but sports clinics are included and AAS picked up coordinating band and cross-country because that’s what Carbondale Middle School needed.
Quinn noted that AAS does all of this with 4 full-time administrative staff and over 120 part-time staff, mostly teachers. The program supports learning as well as providing a safe, secure, and known place for kids to stay after school, and supporting the social and emotional well-being of students and their families.
A very popular summer program offered in Rifle each year, Boost Camp is intended to alleviate the “summer slide” in learning. For $250 a student can attend 5 weeks of summer camp 5 days/week 8 hours/day and scholarships are made available. The summer program incorporates academic support and enrichment activities, the favorite being rocketry where students learn about, build, and then launch their own rockets!
So how can you help? AAS is funded through government grants (26%), Colorado-based foundations (28%) and individual donors (17%). Families also pay modest tuition ($30 for 10 weeks 2-3 afternoons/week) for which scholarships are offered to ensure access.
In promoting “local people supporting local programs” Quinn noted that $1000 will fund free homework help for an entire school for one semester. Wow! That’s significant. AAS also welcomes volunteers to serve on the board, help with social media and branding, and sharing the word about this amazing program doing such good work.