Finding trustworthy childcare is hard enough, and finding a way to afford it on a daily basis after school, especially the days when classes let out early, is even harder.
A daily arts-based after-school program started by a nonprofit known for its work in the arts is now coming to a Prince George’s County elementary school that needs it.
Dozens of students at William Beanes Elementary School in Suitland will get to begin a program through the Brentwood, Maryland-based Joe鈥檚 Movement Emporium, which focuses on arts education and youth development.
This program will start by targeting Beane鈥檚 students in pre-K through second grade, keeping them at school as late as 5 p.m., when dismissal is normally at 1:40 p.m. every afternoon.
“For a parent that works a traditional nine to five, that becomes a barrier around what community supports are available to them to pick up their child at the bus stop,” principal Nyree Smith said.
鈥淭his program will help support ensuring that our parents have a safe space for them.鈥�
Brooke Kidd, executive director of Joe’s Movement Emporium and its community center Creative Suitland, said students will explore all sorts of visual arts like painting, drawing and sculpture, to the performing arts like dance, music, theater and poetry.
By emphasizing reading and literature, the hope is that it also leads to better test scores, while also improving attendance.
鈥楾hey’ll be excited to come to their after-school program and want to make sure they get to school,鈥� Kidd said.
鈥淭hey can have exhibitions and performances throughout the year and just share the talent and creativity school wide.鈥�
The money for this program is coming from federal funds allocated by Congress. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, who spent part of her youth growing up in Suitland, said the investment is personal. She said she was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder around age 8, leading her parents to enroll her in Howard University’s children’s theater program, where she eventually found herself performing at Arena Stage.
“That set the foundation for absolutely everything else that happened in my life,” Alsobrooks said. “The confidence that I developed, the ability to present myself to others, to stand on the stage in those productions, it has carried me for the rest of my life.”
Beanes Elementary was the last of four stops made by Van Hollen and Alsobrooks on Monday. The two also visited Prince George鈥檚 County鈥檚 Latin American Youth Center, College Park鈥檚 Attick Towers Apartments, and Ivy Community Charities of Prince George鈥檚 County, in order to tout further federal investments in programs offered there.
鈥淭his is an opportunity to show where the federal government, by investing a little bit of money, a lot of seed money, can help good things grow,鈥� said Van Hollen. Most of the programs targeted youth around the county.
鈥淥ne of the smartest investments we can make is in our young people, especially when they’re very young,鈥� he said.
The one exception was the money that will help renovate the Attick Towers Apartments, which is owned by the College Park Housing Authority and is a senior living facility.
鈥淪eniors can live in dignity鈥� there, said Van Hollen. 鈥淲e have an affordable housing crisis in Maryland and throughout the country. Seniors, especially since they’re on fixed incomes, have trouble affording rising rents and costs. We’re able to renovate this building and let them stay there 鈥� age in place rather than be thrown out on the street.鈥�
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