Program areas at Marguerite Kiefer Education Center
Health & Wellness - Children and youth 2.5 - 19 years of age. 1. Both virtually & in-person, we emphasize Health & Wellness by promoting physical activity, teaching skills needed to make healthy choices, and encouraging behavior that fosters wellness to approximately 100 young people. 2. We strive to weave Health & Wellness into all the classes we offer in creative ways to make the biggest impact in young people's lives. For instance, during the summer in the World Awareness series, young people learned to cook healthy international dishes and in the Life Skills series they learned exercises that could be done at home with little or no equipment. 3. "Fill the Gap" is our official fundraising program to address Health & Wellness needs beyond structured Rising TIDE programming, e.g. to deal with food & technological challenges at home. Groceries are given to Rising TIDE families in need of food through twice-weekly food distributions, and additionally upon request.
Life Skills - Children and youth 2.5 - 19 years of age. 1. Our Life Skills program reaches over 100 young people each week. Instruction includes how to interact with others, share, manage money, manage conflict and prepare tasty and safe food - all with the goal of helping young people apply their learned skills at and beyond Rising TIDE.* 2. Classes were offered for two 1-week sessions in the summer. Young people learned the basics of money management, baking, sewing, manners, interior design and problem solving.* *All Life Skills learning sessions are provided in-person and virtually, with any supplies needed to fully participate being coordinated with home resources to provide a full learning experience whether joining in-person or virtually.
Guided Learning - Children and youth 2.5 - 19 years of age. 1. We offer tutoring to interested children & youth, Monday through Thursday through our one-on-one tutoring program. Young people are tutored at least once a week, while some choose to be tutored four times a week.* In addition, homework help, reading assistance, school supplies and tech resources are provided so no student is left behind. Over 100 students are supported by our efforts each week. 2. Seminar-style classes were offered during the summer. Two 1-week reading sessions were held in the morning, Monday through Thursday. Our focus was on helping young people build basic skills that were not as developed as they should be for their age due to the pandemic. Therefore, our reading opportunities featured books that were engaging to read (for young readers) and helpful (for older readers). New books were provided so that young people people might be encouraged in their reading.* 3. World Awareness summer classes were also offered in two 1-week morning sessions. These sessions focused on different aspects of our vast world. Our goal for young people was for them to know that we are all in this world together and have similar experiences through play, learning, food, and language even though we have noticeable differences. One class focused on news daily from each continent.* 4. Our lending library, with nearly 10,000 titles, is a great resource for young people. *All learning opportunities were offered in-person and virtually. Supplies were provided to those students joining virtually so they could fully participate with the in-person participants.