UALC: The Church at Mill Run: Learning Enrichment Center Update We are so grateful for the opportunity to love and serve the precious children that God is bringing to our Learning Enrichment Center (LEC) at UALC. Each day our amazing Green Shirt staff and volunteers attend to children’s academic and social-emotional needs through homework help, academic enrichment, fun activities, and friendship. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your partnership and support in service to the children and their families. We offer LEC sessions at UALC Monday through Thursday from 3-5pm and 6-8pm. Each session begins with a fun gathering activity (always with social distancing). Then we review our “Word of the Week” and “Question of the Day” with the children. Next, we move into homework help. If a child does not have homework, we have other academic enrichment activities, games and crafts they can enjoy. At the end of the session we do another fun game or activity together. We give the children a “Grab & Go” Meal when they leave to return home. We’ve had the opportunity to celebrate several holidays and special events with the children. There have been parties for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Martin Luther King Day. We are looking forward to celebrating Valentine’s Day next week. This month we are offering a “Coping Skills Curriculum” where we will feature a different coping strategy each week to learn and practice with the children. We want to help them learn healthy strategies for coping with stress and anxiety during these challenging times. The 4 skills are: Grounding with 54321, Deep Breathing, Guided Imagery/Prayer, and Playdough for Identifying Emotions.
Calendar: • • • • • •
LEC Program Began: October 5 We ran “virtually” on Zoom for 2 weeks in November/December when Franklin County was at COVID Level 4. Holiday Break: December 14 – January 3 Sessions resumed: January 4 Spring Break: March 29 - April 2 Projected End Date: May 14
Current Registration and Attendance: • • • • • • •
78 children registered for the UALC site as of 2/5/2021 35 unique children attended at least once in January (representing 20 families)* Average overall daily attendance = 8 (lowest = 5, highest = 13) Average daily attendance Mon/Wed = 8 Average daily attendance Tues/Thurs = 9 Average afternoon session attendance = 2 (lowest = 0, highest = 6) Average evening session attendance = 7 (lowest = 5, highest = 9)
*Our attendance was impacted by the 2-week closure (when we ran the program on Zoom) and the holiday break in December. We started out with lower numbers in January but have seen an increase each week since then.
Stories from the UALC LEC: LITTLE GIRL KNOWS 6 LANGUAGES: On a recent visit to one of our LECs, I met a little girl and her little sister who were making a Thanksgiving craft. After introducing ourselves, we shared what we were thankful for. She said she was from a country in Africa and could speak 6 languages: 1st language: Berber 2nd language: French 3rd language: Arabic 4th language: a little bit, Spanish 5th language: English 6th language: a little bit, Chinese. I asked her “Do you like it in America?” She said “Really! I really like it here! It is safe here.” I asked if she remembered her country and she said “Yes, I left a year and a half ago. It was hard there. People do drugs and there were bombs and it was dirty.” I watched as the leaders asked children to write on paper the things they were thankful for. The leaders talked about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it and then about people eating Turkey on Thanksgiving. They asked the children if they knew there was a country named Turkey and if the children could come to the world map and guess where that country was located. They asked if the children knew what the capital of that country was and explained it was Istanbul. They said they had a song from Just Dance all about Istanbul. They invited the children to stand up (spaced out) and have fun dancing to this song. There were smiles all around! The children felt safe and confident after completing their schoolwork, being with their peers and grownups who cared about them. I left thanking God and thinking about this amazing night that I got to spend with beautiful children who were born far away, who God had brought to America to share an evening with me. CHILDREN TEACHING ONE ANOTHER: MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY: For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Programs Team had planned a day of celebration at all of our LEC sites. I was filling in at UALC on that day, and as the evening progressed, we hadn’t discussed MLK or done any of the activities. I asked the staff when they planned on beginning the event, and they said, “We delegated this to those three boys and they’re still preparing but will be ready soon!” In attendance that evening were three middle school boys who had finished their homework already. They were being kind and considerate of the younger children, but all in all did not have much to entertain themselves with. They were huddled over their iPads reading several articles about MLK and making notes. One boy had done a presentation about him in school recently and was drawing on the information from his project. They all three stood up in front of the group and took turns giving a detailed biographical account of MLK’s life, as well as his activism and major accomplishments. The other children in the audience took it very seriously. They even asked comprehension questions at the end – for example, “What is activism? How can you be an activist in your school/family/community?” It was awesome!
Photos from the UALC LEC: