SEAFORD — Seven Delaware-based child care and learning centers were awarded a cumulative $2,171,520 in funding this year through the U.S. Department of Education’s Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grant.
Among them is Western Sussex Boys & Girls Club which will continue offering an afterschool program to students in the Seaford School District with the help of the award which came in at $320,000 for the collaborative program, Desiree Hare told the Delaware Business Times.
Hare is the family, schools and community engagement specialist for Western Sussex Boys and Girls Club in Seaford and manages their organization-based programming funded by the grant.
“It’s a five-year grant and we’re glad to see it renewing. We feel that programs like our child care program are important because they help bridge that gap and that lack of communication by having resources readily available to the families we serve,” she said.
For the Seaford club, the funds go deeper than simply offering additional child care services.
“We partner with the [Seaford] School District to increase math and reading scores, as well as the child care aspect. It helps with community togetherness,” she explained. “Teachers from the district come in for the afterschool program and tutor our students. We have family engagement events every month which are totally free to the entire community and we do book bag drives to provide resources to the families and community. It’s a lot and we can’t do it without grants like 21st Century.”
This year’s cohort of 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grantees in Delaware include Thomas Edison Charter School in Wilmington which was awarded $320,000 and the University of Delaware’s 4H program at Shue-Medill Middle School in Newark which was awarded $240,000. Four schools in the Capital School District to include Dover Middle and High Schools and East Dover and South Dover Elementary Schools were each awarded $320,000 through the program.
“21st Century Community Learning Centers are federally funded, high-quality afterschool and summer programs that provide students with safe, engaging places to try new activities, develop new skills, have fun and learn,” spokeswoman for the Delaware Department of Education Alison May said in a prepared statement to DBT.
