As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, virtual learning has become reality for many Central Alabama students. Girls Inc. and the Levite Jewish Community Center have stepped in to offer help to families needing assistance during this time.
Girls Inc.’s Rising Leaders Academy is a program for K-12 students in the Greater Birmingham area to provide a supportive environment for girls and their families.
The program began September 14 and continues until November 13, Monday through Friday, from 7:00am to 3:30pm. Academy benefits include a supportive environment, onsite technology and Wi-Fi, homework help, programming, tutoring, free breakfast and lunch, and social and emotional learning.
Connie Hill, Girls Inc. President & CEO, said, “We are all living in uncertain times – a pandemic, racial injustice, uncertainty about jobs. But we all also want a stable space for the girls in our lives. At Girls Inc., we’ve been providing spaces like that since 1938, and we want to be here for you now.”
Club J All Day is a program that provides families and their children with a managed, safe environment to support students’ virtual school efforts while offering extracurricular activities for students in kindergarten through sixth grade through the Levite Jewish Community Center. The LJCC has hired award-winning teachers to come up with the curriculum for attending students. The program began on August 31 and will continue as long as the need is there.
The LJCC successfully ran a COVID-19 safe summer camp by working closely with local healthcare professionals during planning and operations and are doing the same this school year, serving approximately 20 families per week.
“One of the greatest barriers for working families to return to work is having safe, supervised support for virtual learning programs. The LJCC is happy to fill this need in our community with Club J All Day,” said Levite Jewish Community Center Executive Director Samantha Dubrinsky.
United Way agencies such as the A.G. Gaston Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA are also providing programs like Rising Leaders Academy and Club J All Day.
For more information on the Rising Leaders Academy, contact Brittony Fonbah at bfonbah@girlsinccentral-al.org or 205-599-5555.
If interested in Club J All Day, contact Kirsten Robinson at krobinson@bhamjcc.org or 205-879-0411.