A Transition to the Future

From the very beginning, Operation Shoestring valued the needs of our service community and made it our mission to create programming to fit their needs. Even if this meant making major changes.

And major changes are happening once again.

And by major changes, I mean MAJOR. Specifically, we’re transforming our physical environment to better serve the 21^st century needs of our community and to provide the best programming possible. What does that mean? Well, it means a total re-do of our existing building and a whole new adjacent greenspace and playground. More soon on the specifics as we roll out our plans. But for now, just know that major changes are happening in order to serve our awesome kids, families, and communities even better. And while this transformation project is happening at 1711 Bailey Avenue, the majority of our Project Rise afterschool programming is transitioning to Rowan Middle School, a long-time nearby partner institution.

Earlier this week, nearly 100 of our families gathered at Rowan for a parent meeting where we did our standard parent orientation and then reviewed our policies and procedures. The meeting was segmented into three sessions; Parent Leadership, Intervention, and Enrichment. Parents were extremely excited to experience firsthand the enrichment activities their children enjoy every day in afterschool.

When most people think of afterschool programs, they think of homework help and some tutoring. However, what our parents know is a valuable afterschool program explores a combination of learning strategies from homework help and interventions to enrichment and social-emotional learning activities.

At Operation Shoestring we found success by incorporating several strategies in a well-organized, thoughtful and student-centered fashion. And we’ll bring this same approach to Rowan and eventually to our new state of the art facility.

We’ve thrived for half a century because we believe in the power of people. We believe everyone has the potential and power within themselves to change or improve their circumstances when truly given the chance. And we know we’re not alone. Our volunteers and supporters – like you – show us daily you understand we all must work together to make our children and our community whole.