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 Programs and Services Family Support & Housing Services Family Day Care Microenterprise
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Education & Youth DevelopmentInspiring Life-Long LearnersWHEDCo provides out-of-school activities for more than 450 children each year at PS/MS 218, the K-8 school Students Toward Educational Promise, Project STEP, provides test prep,tutoring, guidance counseling and school application assistance for local middle school children preparing for the transition to high school. The program aims to guide and motivate students to strive for admission into qualityschools with higher graduation rates than those of the average neighborhood schools. This year, three students were admitted to specialized high schools (including Stuyvesant High, MCCNY, and American Studies at Lehman College). Ten more were admitted to Catholic schools. All of the students participating in Project STEP gained admission to one of their top three choices for public high schools. As a result of our success at PS/MS 218, WHEDCo was invited to replicate our out-of-school time model in other local schools in the Bronx. At the request of The After School Corporation and the Department of Education, weare now implementing a similar after-school program in grades K-5 at PS 2. Modeled after our existing program,the after-school program at PS 2 is fully integrated with the learning and activities taking place during theschoolday. Teachers, school guidance counselors, after-school staff, and parents work together to design and WHEDCo's stellar contributions to the after-school field have received wide recognition. Most recently, our program was featured in the February issue of Edutopia Magazine, a national magazine supported by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which aims to highlight exemplary programs in K-12 public schools and share best practices nationwide. From After-School to City Hall: Youth Advocate for Sex EducationEmpowered to take action as part of a WHEDCo after-school project in spring 2006, a group of seventh-grade girls, under the guidance of WHEDCo staff, developed a petition and gathered over 200 signatures demanding they be taught sex education in their school. They presented their ideas to the school principal and representatives from the NYC Department of Education and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Their advocacy project attracted citywide attention to the need for a comprehensive sex education curriculum, and immediately resulted in a commitment by the school principal to offer a required HIV/AIDS curriculum during the last days of the school year. Read the Press Release. The girl activists also developed a brochure and a web page with information, links, and resources on the subject of sex education. Their site can be seen at: http://sexed4u.googlepages.com/ Now in ninth grade, the girls are still advocating for mandated sex education and recently joined WHEDCo president Nancy Biberman, in testifying during the City Council's hearings on sex education in the City's public schools. Read Nancy's testimony. Their story has been featured in media outlets across the city, including WNBC-TV Newschannel 4, the Brian Lehrer Show WNYC 93.9 FM, the AM New York, the New York Post and the Daily News.
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on Urban Horizon's extended campus. The model arts-based after school program and summer camp combine academic instruction, arts, sports, and cultural activities with the support of a social worker. The program also partners with Planned Parenthood to introduce students to topics of health and family planning. New York City recognizes WHEDCo as a citywide exemplar of after-school services, based on attendance, breadth of programming, and administration. The program boasts attendance rates of above 80% and a year-over-year retention rate of 70%.