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In this issue:
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Welcome to the second
edition of the Project My Time e-newsletter! Since last month's launch,
excitement has been building up around the city about Project My Time. In this
newsletter, learn about our new Project My Time programs and meet our distinguished
site directors. Also, take a peek at our posters featuring
real youth from DC Trust-funded programs. And check out the coverage of Project
My Time in local news, including the Washington Post, WPGC-FM, 95.5 and Comcast
of the District Newsmakers on CNN Headline News (See
the video here).
Project My Time Launches 25 Programs at Three Pilot Sites
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A student plays his
trumpet, participating in just one of the many fun activities
offered by Project My Time at Lincoln Middle School. |
The first three Project My Time sites are up and
running, and students are enthusiastically joining in the new
after-school initiative. Project My Time began enrolling students in
mid-January, after hosting a spaghetti dinner for parents and students
at Hart Middle School and inviting parents and students to informational fairs at Lincoln and
Kelly Miller middle schools. Thanks to Project My Time, the three
schools combined are offering 25 programs, such as African drumming and
dancing and writing scripts for plays.
“Project My Time is bringing new opportunities to help DC youth succeed,” said Greg Roberts,
president and CEO of the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust
Corporation.
Project My Time builds on what children learn in school while providing safe,
fun and stimulating places for children to thrive. The initiative is supported
by full-time site directors at each school to ensure coordination between the
school-day learning and the recreational after-school activities of their
choice, such as art, music, dance and sports. The site director at Hart is John
Williams, a DC native with 13 years of experience working with at-risk children
and families. At Kelly Miller, the site director is Byra Cole, who holds a
master’s degree in organizational development and has worked with vulnerable
youth and assisted youth gain access to college for 12 years. At Lincoln, the
site director is Brodrick Clarke, who for 16 years has worked with youth and
teachers in public schools.
When Project My Time began enrolling students at Lincoln, the response was
immediately overwhelming, according to Clarke. Organizers ran out of their 200
flyers at the informational fair, and more students still are registering
everyday, he said. “This is a huge statement by the students,” Clarke said.
“They are looking for these kinds of activities.”
The program providers selected for Project My Time are:
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Students learn soccer
skills
and receive mentorship
through DC SCORES |
DC SCORES
Positive Nature
DC Urban Debate League
African Heritage Dancers & Drummers
DC Creative Writing Workshop
Washington Tennis & Education Foundation
Covenant House Washington
A Greater Washington/Fields of Dreams
Higher Achievement Program
Young Playwrights Theatre
DC Urban Debate League
East Capitol Center for Change
Community Help In Music Education (CHIME)
Columbia Heights Youth Club
Latin American Youth Center
Getting the Word Out in the Community – and in the News
As our new programs started in the three pilot sites,
we have begun getting the word out to parents and students as well as to
the larger community about Project My Time.
We have put up these colorful posters around the halls at Lincoln, Hart
and Kelly Miller middle schools. All of the posters feature photos of
students in Trust-funded after-school programs. We also have distributed
hundreds of flyers with the same photos to kids at the schools as well
as hundreds of other flyers to parents.
We also are trying to tell our story to the larger DC world.
Project My Time director Meeta Sharma-Holt appeared on Comcast of the District
News makers,
which aired for five minutes on CNN’s Headline News in January. See the
video: click here!
We’ve appeared recently in the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the
Washington Hispanic, East of the River and DC Metro Herald newspapers. Radio
interviews with Greg Roberts, president and CEO of the Trust, and Sharma-Holt
have aired on WAMU-FM, 88.5, WPGC-AM, 1580, and WPGC-FM, 95.5.
 And more interviews will air this weekend on WPGC stations. An interview with
Sharma-Holt will air on Sunday, March 4 at 6 a.m. on WPGC-AM, 1580 and at 7 a.m.
on WPGC-FM, 95.5. Tune in!
See our media coverage: click
here!
Project
My Time is an initiative of the DC Children and Youth Investment
Trust Corporation.
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