Lights On After School Celebration

I attended the Lights On Afterschool celebration for one of my events this semester. The Lights on After school program is focused on keeping children occupied after school. On their website, they talk about how millions of children are left alone Afterschool while parents and caregivers work or attend other obligations. The organization's goal is to help children stay engaged and learn even after school so that they grow into "successful adults." This organization has a great goal, because it is important that children spend time with adults who inspire them to learn, grow and be their best selves. I also think that it is good for them to be in a place where they are being watched so they can't get into trouble. 

    The event was held on Remo, which is an online program that I have never used before. At first it was confusing. There were different “tables” that you had to jump to and have a conversation with the people in that group about whatever topic that table was discussing. I think that the format was supposed to be mimicking going to an event where you visit different booths which is easy in real life, but didn’t translate so well into an online platform. It was confusing jumping from the different tables at first, but I eventually got the hang of it. I attended a couple of organizations that resonated with me. The first one I thought was amazing was the PVD Youngmakers. This organization talked about young people being involved in decision making. They talked about one of their projects where the young people came together and made Black Lives Matter t-shirts, pins and badges. The goal of this activity was to bring the participants together and use various skills to make connections and work towards helping a good cause. It was interesting to hear how they use different skills to bring these kids together to form a community.


    Another organization I learned about was ARISE. They are the Alliance of Southeast Asians for Education. This group is focused on helping southeast asian students in Rhode Island prepare for education and careers. They offer after school programs at Central and Classical and Dr. Jorge Alvarez high schools in Providence. Some of their focuses are on social justice, healthy relationships, values and goal setting, intergenerational leadership, intergenerational conflict and resolution and surviving and thriving in high school. They also offer SAT prep. ARISE covers a broad base of topics to support the southeast asian community in Rhode Island. The presenter talked about their goal of having “Police Free Schools.” The reason they oppose police presence in schools is because they want to focus on conflict resolution without having the law involved. They believe that treating the students with respect and dignity will help solve problems without having to involve officers. This is something I hadn’t considered before so I thought it was an interesting point of view. 
    The last program that I learned about was the Equity working groups. Their goal is to make programs more equitable. Some of the things that they do is critique lesson plans to ensure that they are teaching and reinforcing equity and researching what equitable policies look like. The difference between equity and equality is that when things are equal everyone gets the same thing, but when things are equitable everyone gets what they need, which may be different for everyone. It is extremely important to be equitable so that groups from different backgrounds are able to achieve the same things and are given the same opportunities.


    The format of this event was something I haven't experienced before and it was a little hard to figure out initially. I’m glad that I went to the event because I learned a lot about the Lights on After school program. I liked to learn about the different programs that are offered locally to support the youth in my state. It is incredible that the volunteers at these programs work so hard to be involved in kids' lives. The work they do is so important and makes a difference in so many lives.


Lights On After school: http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/loaHistory.cfm

PVD Young Makers: https://pvdyoungmakers.com/making-and-learning/

Arise: http://www.ariseducation.org/strategic-plan

Equality Working Groups: http://www.alliance-network.eu/committees-and-working-groups/gender-equality-working-group/


 



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