Building Young Tomorrows
United Way of Passaic County Announces Partnership with CUMAC-ECHO to Help Paterson Kids
September 21, 2006, Paterson, NJ—Today United Way of Passaic County (UWPC) announced the kick-off its annual fundraising campaign, setting a goal of $1.9 million. The announcement took place at Paterson Avenue United Methodist Church, the site of a new after-school program that United Way is helping to launch.
“Today we are pleased to announce that United Way of Passaic County has delivered on its goal to create more after-school services for children,” said Steven Rose, UWPC’s Board Chairman. “This is a wonderful example of the work we can accomplish with the money raised from our annual campaign, and we hope that the community will rally around and support United Way of Passaic County.”
CUMAC-ECHO, a non-profit provider of social services in Paterson, received start-up funding from United Way of Passaic County this fall to create the new program. Partnering with two area churches, CUMAC will offer 30 after-school slots at the Paterson Avenue Methodist Church and 15 slots at the Madison Park-Epworth United Methodist Church.
According to Yvonne Zuidema, UWPC president, “Addressing the shortage of after-school programs was a major goal for us this year. We know that there are not enough spaces for children who want to be in after-school programs, and yet the programs deliver a huge benefit for the children who do participate.”
To address this community concern, UWPC coordinates the Building Young Tomorrows initiative comprised of partnerships with eight non-profit agencies including CUMAC-ECHO. The goals of the initiative are to help children and youth: (1) succeed academically; (2) prepare for post-secondary education; (3) prepare for employment; (4) develop their personal interests to create a well-rounded life; (5) adopt a healthy lifestyle; and (6) learn positive life skills such as money management, conflict resolution and leadership.
PROGRAM GOALS
For over seventy years, United Way of Passaic County (UWPC) has been working to support the healthy development of children in our community. UWPC has particularly focused on addressing the obstacles faced by children and youth growing up in the midst of poverty. The Building Young Tomorrows Initiative was organized in 1999 to provide a more strategic, high impact approach to investing in child development. United Way’s strategy is to target children’s “out-of-school time,” that is, after school during the week, on weekends, and during the summer.
Through our Building Young Tomorrows Initiative, UWPC collaborates with local partners to achieve two primary goals:
Children and youth will develop toward a positive and productive adulthood; and,
Children and youth with disabilities will develop their full potential.
After-school and summer day camp programs provide safe, supervised settings for children and youth while their parents work. The programs promote children’s healthy development through recreation and sports, homework support and academic enrichment, computer skills, the arts, character & leadership development, substance abuse prevention, and conflict resolution. The homework help and academic enrichment provided by after-school programs are vital to these children’s futures, particularly in the many homes where parents do not speak English. However, the other components are also valuable, both for well-rounded development and because social and emotional development are linked to academic success. In particular, the opportunity to form positive, supportive relationships with adult staff members is a tremendous benefit to these children, enabling them to feel “connected.” [1]
UWPC is committed to investing $215,000 with ten agencies from July 2006 through June 2007. These programs make a difference in the lives of 7,600 participating children and youth.
The following table shows UWPC’s Community Investments at a glance. For more information about any of our outcomes or these programs, click on the outcome or program name on the following page >>
[1] Promoting Positive Youth Development as a Support to Academic Achievement, National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) and Forum for Youth Investment, printed in Strategies for Success: Strengthening Learning in Out-of-School Time, by Boston’s After-School for All Partnership, June 2003, www.afterschoolforall.org.
Site Design: Studio J