The Olivet Boys & Girls Club is opening a new afterschool program in the West Reading Elementary Center through a partnership with the Wyomissing School District.
This school year the program will be available to fifth and sixth grade Wyomissing students, with plans to eventually expand it to fourth- and seventh-graders, Olivet officials said.
The club will be open Mondays through Fridays on school days beginning Sept. 27. Students who participate will begin the program right after the school day ends and will continue until about 6:30 p.m., though the schedule is flexible if parents need to pick up their children earlier.
Registration fees will be waived for the first year, and participants will receive a free snack and hot dinner.
The program will include homework help, social and emotional support, character development, sports and recreation, arts and crafts, physical fitness, and science, technology, engineering and math activities, most held in the school but some taking place at other Olivet clubs, said Nick Philippides, Olivet vice president of satellite sites and services.
Olivet expects 25 to 35 students will participate this year, though there is room for more, he said.
Educational professionals will work with parents, students and Olivet staff under a new model that will help to best serve the needs of Wyomissing students in a safe afterschool setting, Olivet President and CEO Chris Winters said in a press release.
Wyomissing Superintendent Robert Scoboria spoke of Olivet’s impressive track record in helping Berks youth and said the district’s youth will benefit from the partnership.
“This is a great opportunity for our students,” he said.
There is no similar afterschool program in the district, he said, and opening it to fifth- and sixth-graders makes sense because they are too young to join the clubs, sports teams and other extracurricular activities open to older students, he said.
For many working parents those hours after school and before they get home from their jobs can be difficult in terms of child care, so the Olivet program should be popular, he said.
And if parents allow, the club’s site director and staff will have access to student academic information so they can tailor their homework help to best suit them, he said.
“This new relationship with Wyomissing Area School District is an example of two respected organizations working together for the benefit of our youth,” John Massaro, board chairman of Olivet Boys & Girls Club, said in the press release.
Olivet serves about 3,000 students in Berks each year, and the West Reading Elementary Center will be its 11th site, including seven in Reading.
Information and notifications on the process to sign up for the club will be announced and distributed through the district’s communication system.
Olivet will be announcing the new site director in the coming days.
The organization hopes to expand its afterschool program to other Berks districts, Philippides said.
“Olivet is about helping kids everywhere, so we’re looking strongly at that,” he said.
