Thanks to a brand new three-year award from the City, SCAN began a new afterschool program this fall in partnership with the Harbor Science and Arts Charter School, located on East 111^th Street.

Thanks to a brand new three-year award from the City, SCAN began a new afterschool program this fall in partnership with the Harbor Science and Arts Charter School, located on East 111th Street. The new funding provides $270,000 a year, enabling the agency to serve 90 middle school students (grades 6-8) with a broad range of programs.

Academic supports for students include tutoring and homework help; enrichment activities include literacy, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), leadership development and journalism; and health living / physical activities feature dance, stepping, basketball and soccer. Students will also be provided with college and career awareness activities, through our ongoing effort to engage middle school students in SCAN’s Reach For The Stars program.

As a part of SONYC (School’s Out NYC) – the City’s largest ever expansion of afterschool programming for middle school students – this new effort by SCAN draws on the agency’s decades of experience in supporting teens during their critical transition from elementary to high school. Accordingly, the activities being delivered at the Harbor School have all been proven at SCAN’s other school sites (we are currently running seven afterschool programs in the South Bronx).

Perhaps most importantly, the students will benefit from one of the most effective reforms available for enhancing the school experience: reduced class size. As Shakiema Dixon, SCAN’s program director at the school puts it, “Every activity we’re providing has a maximum of 15 students per class. There’s no better way to ensure that participants will get the attention and encouragement they need to learn, develop and mature.”