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Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fall, 2008
Contact: Ellen London - 202-939-1383
Project My Time Expands, Offering Free After-School Programs at Ten DC Middle Schools
Washington, DC – The DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation (Trust) is expanding its Project My Time initiative to enroll about 2,000 young people in free, high-quality after-school programs at ten middle schools citywide. This expansion is part of an effort with DC Public Schools to build a coordinated system of after-school programs in the District. The expansion also means that for the first time since Project My Time started in January 2007, it will be available in most wards of the District of Columbia. Project My Time will feature programs ranging from martial arts and hip-hop dancing to visual arts and creative writing to soccer and tennis, and tutoring in reading and math and homework assistance.
About 200 children at each school will be able to participate. The schools offering Project My Time programs are:
- Columbia Heights Educational Campus - Ward 1
- Deal Junior High School - Ward 3
- MacFarland Middle School - Ward 4
- Marshall Educational Center - Ward 5
- Eliot-Hine Middle School - Ward 6
- Jefferson Junior High School - Ward 6
- Sousa Middle School - Ward 7
- Kelly Miller Middle School - Ward 7
- Hart Middle School - Ward 8
- Johnson Junior High School - Ward 8
The free Project My Time programs will begin Sept. 15 and will operate from 3:15 to 6:30 p.m. daily. Every afternoon, students will receive free snacks, and will have time to do their homework and receive help, if needed. They then will participate in activities of their choice, such as academic enrichment, art, music, dance, sports and other recreation. To register their children, parents should contact their child’s school. For more information, visit www.projectmytime.org.
Project My Time, an initiative of the Trust, aims to build 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 engaging after-school activities offered by the selected providers.
“We are so pleased to be able to provide Project My Time to even more young people in the District,” said Millicent Williams, president and CEO of the Trust. “Project My Time allows young people to choose the after-school activities that they want to participate in – programs that will help them achieve their fullest potential. Parents will be happy to know that these fun, safe programs reinforce the academic skills their children learn during the day.”
In 2006, the Trust was selected to receive an $8 million grant, making DC one of five cities funded by The Wallace Foundation in New York to focus on improving after-school programs. Project My Time is the result of a partnership of 50 stakeholders, including the Trust, the Mayor’s office, the DC Public Schools, several District government agencies, including the DC Department of Parks and Recreation, the local philanthropic community, parents and community groups.
Like other cities nationally, DC wants to offer comprehensive after-school programs that blend strong academics with enrichment activities. The Trust initiative aims to build a more coordinated system to improve the quality of after-school and summer programs for all of DC as well as to increase access to and enrollment in those programs.
Project My Time focuses on the middle school years because recent national research shows many urban children are “lost” during those years. One study shows that children entering middle school with even one of four risk factors have only a 10-percent chance of graduating from high school on time or at all. The four factors are: failing English, failing math, poor behavior, and truancy.
The DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation is a public-private partnership chartered by the District to help a wide variety of organizations improve the quality, quantity and accessibility of services and opportunities for every child in the city.
For more information, visit www.cyitc.org