Lafayette Library Homework Center
Profile of a free after-school program
Libraries are often flooded with unaccompanied minors when school lets out each weekday. Here is how one small Colorado town handled the pressure.
As in many communities, the Lafayette Public Library has become the de facto after-school care site for many residents in this small Colorado town. It’s free, and parents perceive it as safe and wholesome. Nonetheless, as with other libraries around the nation, there was no system in place to watch, feed, or occupy the youngsters that flooded the library after school. To deal with the growing demand for an after-school program, and to diminish disruptions for older library patrons, the organization decided to start an after-school homework center.
Overview:
Since opening in the spring of 2000, the Library’s free drop-in Homework Center has grown from having a couple of dozen students to having over 2,600 visits from over 270 students representing 24 different schools.
While students in grades K through 12 are welcome, the Center serves predominantly grades 4 through 7. The Center is staffed Mondays through Thursdays by thirty caring and dedicated volunteer tutors including high school honor students, teachers, other professionals – and a reading therapy dog! Eight computers are available for research, typing assignments, and for practicing reading, writing, and math skills. The center has only two part-time paid employees, who share a desk, the Homework Center Coordinator and the bilingual Assistant Coordinator.
Because of the low-income level of many of the Center’s students, it qualifies for help from the local food bank, Community Food Share. In 2005-2006, the Center distributed over 2,000 pounds in snacks and drinks.
Mission of Organization:
The Homework Center is a welcoming, positive place for students needing homework help.
Principal Programs:
- Drop-in Tutoring: Students receive free homework help Mondays through Thursdays from 3:00-6:30.
- Drinks and snacks: At tutor’s discretion, students who have been in the Homework Center for 15 minutes can get a free drink and snack.
- Tutor training: Tutors receive ongoing training in both general tutoring skills and specific academic areas such as reading and math.
- Monthly prizes: To encourage regular and ongoing participation in the program, the Homework Center gives books and small, in-kind prizes (such as coupons for free take-and-bake pizzas) to the students who have come most often.
- Volunteer recognition: To show its’ appreciation for the dedicated tutors who make the Homework Center possible, the staff hold volunteer recognition events during the year. In 2006, students wrote “Thank you’s” to the tutors that the staff turned into keepsake booklets.
