April 3, 2019—Volunteers gathered for a brief talk about the state of our after school and summer enrichment program, how it has evolved and plans for the future. Laurie Dien, Vice President of Programs, Pinkerton Foundation, joined us as a featured speaker. Guests also heard from Martha Andrade-Dousdebes, founder and long-time director of the program and Wendy Mirón, current director of the Parenting and Child Development department, of which the after school program is a part.

The event kicked off a campaign to raise funds for the program, which serves children in grades K-3. The goal of the campaign is to raise $50,000 to keep the program running for the 2019-2020 school year.

Laurie Dien spoke about the long relationship that LSA has had with the Pinkerton Foundation, and how much she has learned from the way we help families build on their assets and strengths. She stated: “We’ve had a long and a happy affiliation with LSA. I’ve watched the progression of LSA over time and I see it progressing. I see it on a high.”

Stephanie Cooper-Clarke, a tutor and member of the LSA’s Board of Directors, shared a story that illustrated the way the one-on-one interactions with a tutor and the family supports offered at LSA can help a child in a way that schools often can’t. “We go a step further,” she stated.

Martha Andrade-Dousdebes agreed: “The beauty of ‘family health service’ is that it’s not only the teachers or the director but the whole staff of Little Sisters that works together.”

The comprehensive After School and Summer Enrichment Program at LSA Family Health Service offers high quality educational services to children in East Harlem. Our program inspires children in grades K-3 to improve reading and math skills, with socio-emotional learning goals and parent involvement integrated throughout the program.

Donate today to sponsor a child in our program! 

Your gift will help us meet a challenge grant to fully fund our after school and summer enrichment program.

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Photo above: Laurie Dien, Vice President, Programs, Pinkerton Foundation

More photos from the event:

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The program for children in K-3rd grades, wrapped up in early August.  Over the course of the program, activities helps prevent learning loss or the “summer slide”– a loss in several months of academic gains that can happen over the summer school holiday.

The best way to prevent the summer slide is by reading, and kids in our program did a lot of that!  The overall theme for the summer curriculum was water, and the children read and wrote about a number of topics related to the environment.  Trips and activities helped to reinforce what they learned in the classroom.  For example,  on a trip to Randall’s Island, children explored a salt water marsh and learned about wetland conservation.  They used binoculars, magnifying glasses, fish nets, and traps to find animals in the wetlands, and they did writing and drawing activities to describe what they learned.

On another trip to the Harlem Meer, the children measured water quality and learned about native plants.  They also learned all about giant pandas, with help from guest volunteers from JP Morgan.

Parent engagement was an important part of the program.  Once a week, parents accompanied children for workshops and activities to help them support the academic development of their children at home.  One activity included a trip to the neighborhood library.

The summer program was run by a combination of trained educators and volunteers.  We extend our thanks to the teachers, volunteers and interns from Make the Road and Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) who help make this program so successful for the kids and their families!

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On a recent trip to the Harlem Meer at Central Park, the children used scientific methods to examine water quality and the surrounding environment. They kept track of their observations in field journals.

The children sampled the water for E. coli, bacteria, lead, pesticides, nitrates and nitrites, chlorine, hardness and pH.  They observed the temperature change in the meer using digital thermometers. And they also identified animals and trees around the park (oak, beech, ginkgo, bald cypress, black locust).

Throughout the summer program, children will continue learning about the environment and about different bodies of water.  By keeping children engaged in learning, our program combats the “summer slide,” the tendency to lose some achievement gains students made the previous year.   In 2017, 93% of children in our summer program gained at least one reading level.

Thank you to the great team of teachers, volunteers and interns from Make the Road and Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) who make trips like these possible!

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• 36 children participated in the summer youth program at LSA.  The goal of this 4-week program is to prevent the summer slide – learning loss that can occur when children don’t continue reading throughout the summer months.  The program included both math and reading instruction, a poetry workshop by local poet Alex Greenberg, and other enrichment activities.
• Parents enrolled in our Parenting and Child Development program attended a 4-week workshop on the 5 developmental priorities of our early childhood program: attachment and healthy separation, language and literacy, exploration and learning, self-regulation and emotional development, and connection to outside resources.
• Families in the Parenting and Child Development program enjoyed two trips to the beach and a picnic.
• Families in our Preventive Services program enjoyed a trip to Coney Island.
• 36 children participated in the H.E.A.R.T. Camp and H.E.A.R.T. Prep summer programs at Convent of the Sacred Heart.  Children attended fun classes, including swimming, sports, dance, debate, math and reading.  Middle school students in the Prep program toured high schools to prepare for the high school application process.
• 9 children from LSA families participated in a 1 week dance class with the Revolucion Latina Dance Company
• Families participated in a 4-week Community CookShop class, to learn how to prepare nutritious and cost-friendly meals.
• Our own Lucia Russet offered yoga lessons to parents and teens.
• Families made use of Cool Culture passes to visit city museums.

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