Carver Program Book (large download)
Summary
Founded in 1938, the Carver Center builds lifetime achievers of children and youth with the support of more than 400 volunteers reaching more than 4,000 individuals each year through a spectrum of educational, recreational, summer camp, after-school, and enrichment programs, as well as spring and fall national college tours. Parents and community leaders join in making the Carver Center Norwalk’s key advocate for low-income youth.
Academic Programs
Through the Carver Center, paid tutors, in addition to dozens of volunteers, work with students from the city’s four middle schools, high school and nine of the city’s twelve elementary schools. After-school programs led by certified teachers and other qualified staff and volunteers are also established at Norwalk’s four middle schools and Norwalk High School. All of these academic programs provide tutoring in all subjects, hands-on science, preparation for standardized testing, and assistance with the college application process. More than 500 students receive this especially intensive academic assistance.
Recreation & Enrichment Programs
More than 72 years of grassroots success in providing community-based leadership and innovation affords the Carver Center with the ability to sustain a tradition of engaging youth and their parents in the Carver Center’s program planning and evaluation, to offer a well balanced array of programs, including after-school recreational, academic and enrichment programs, Summer Camp, a Drop-in Teen Center, youth-led community events, award-winning basketball leagues, soccer leagues, cultural enrichment programs, youth leadership programs and community wide initiatives such as holiday celebrations and food drives.
Youth Development Program – Free to middle and high school students
Our Youth Development Program (YDP) is an after-school initiative for middle and high school students. Established in 1970, YDP is designed to help students graduate on time with the minimum requirement for admission to college or trade school, fulfilling our vision for “building lifetime achievers.”
Each of the public school’s facilities, including classrooms, gym, library and other resources, are familiar and accessible to that school’s students and their families. The Carver Center provides the staffing and depth of experience, including certified teachers hired from within the participating schools. The high school program will include new innovations, such as paid internships and work opportunities provided by participating area companies.
Paid internships/job opportunities, virtual mentoring, strong IT component and joint parent/student activities.
Contact: Benson Casimir for High School – 203 838 4305 Ext. 111
Debbie Ross Williams for middle school – 203 838 4304 Ext. 119
The Waiting List for the Youth Development program
Guidance Counselors in Norwalk Public Schools recommend students to us who are most in need of the Youth Development Program. Dozens of students are on the waiting lists at each of Norwalk’s four middle schools and Norwalk High School. Funding for additional staff (to maintain a one-to-ten ratio of staff to youth) is our only limitation, $1,000 per student, inasmuch as the entire program occurs within the students’ respective schools (i.e., there is no facility capacity limitation).
The need is great. Over the past two decades, childhood obesity rates have tripled in Connecticut. According to the Childhood Obesity Action Network, Connecticut children are less likely than their counterparts nationwide to be physically active for at least 4 days per week. Black children in Connecticut are almost two times more likely than white children to be overweight or obese (44.9% to 23.2%). If the trend continues, this generation of minority children could be the first to live fewer years on average than their parents. Of the 10,591 PK-12 students in Norwalk, 59.1% are minority students, 29.7% are low income. The “Achievement Gap” (the average gap between the performance of low-income and minority students and their non low-income and white peers) remains the largest in the nation, with poor students reading at least three grade levels behind their wealthier peers. The Carver Center’s Youth Development Program (YDP) works to address these needs in the lives of low income minority students and engages the parents who typically work several jobs to support their families. YDP supports the family, not just the student.
Capacity Building
The Carver Center’s volunteer-led Strategic Planning Group brings encouragement, ideas and new opportunities to the agency’s board and staff. As a result of winning the Bank of America Neighborhood Builder Award, The Bridgespan Group (a nonprofit initiative of the global consulting firm Bain & Company) is currently conducting (pro bono) a four-month organizational effectiveness assessment.
Collaboration
The Carver Center collaborates with many partners, including the Maritime Aquarium and Sound Waters. The Carver Center invites all Norwalk’s after-school providers to participate in its annual Career Fair and they in turn invite their respective youth to participate in our annual college tours. The Carver Center also engages experts from the community to conduct parent workshops on topics such as IT, financial literacy, child advocacy, and on understanding standardized testing.
The Carver Center recently won the City of Norwalk a place among the America’s Promise Alliance “100 Best Communities for Young People.” In nominating the city for this honor, the Carver Center was inspired to create Norwalk Promise (http://norwalkpromise.org/), an initiative to distribute to all Norwalk’s youth a map of where to discover the city’s many opportunities made available to them.
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