Kid's Club

The JCOC Kid’s Club is an after-school program that matches an adult or qualified student volunteer/mentor with a child in a one-on-one relationship that fosters the child’s social and cognitive development as well as school related skills. Children are selected by guidance counselors from Cooke Elementary School, Seatack Elementary School and Birdneck Elementary School because school officials believe the child will benefit by having an adult mentor, not because the child is learning disabled. 

How Kid’s Club Works

The volunteer/mentor and child meet weekly to do homework, read, tell and write stories, play games, engage in an activity or a craft, and create a portfolio together. The children maintain portfolios by writing down favorite moments and impressions of the attraction visited, what they learned about themselves and what they saw. They add pictures of the adventure they experienced in the portfolio’s day sheet. Kid’s Club projects relate to and reinforce the curriculum taught in the school.

Each of the Kid’s Club sessions during the regular school year last approximately two hours. During the summer, weekly field trips act as a one-day summer camp. The children also take field trips to various local attractions (museums, zoos, etc.) for “hands on” experiences to learn about animals and our environment.

Our Kid’s and Volunteers

Kid’s Club is set up like a club so children are not stigmatized by attending. Many of the children who are served are homeless, living in crowded motel rooms with more than one family, or in the trailer parks in our neighborhood. Most parents of the children served have never completed high school themselves, and find helping children with homework difficult or impossible

The goals of the KID’S Club

• Children extend their concentration and focus
• Children exhibit positive attitudes and behaviors towards teachers and parents
• Children increase their desire to read and learn
• Relationships between family and child are strengthened
• Serves as a referral source to assisting families to receive necessary services, such as food, clothing, and assisting with shelter needs

Kids' Club receives the majority of funding from private donations of food, crafts, and educational supplies that are donated by the JCOC member organizations.