I run an after-school program for about 30 kids at a school in Aurora.
What I’d like to do is open a cultural clearinghouse for children, centrally located within walking distance of our science museum, theaters, library, YMCA, YWCA, and university campuses, where children may register to spend time after school and which will provide for them (or direct them to) activities and services that offer what they seek and need (reading instruction, music lessons, film club, theater groups, book clubs at the Aurora Public Library, YWCA activities, SciTech, Art exhibits and classes, Aurora Historical Society exhibits, etc.)
By registering to attend our cultural center, children would check in daily after school to be steered to various activities and services offered either on premise or within walking distance of the center (with screened and registered volunteers to escort them to their sessions.) Supervised transportation could be provided for destinations outside the immediate city center (for example, the Prisco and Vaughan Centers.)
On weekends children could be invited to attend Film events, foreign language clubs, plays, concerts, and special events. Our children could also be taught to mount social events of their own.
Such an institution would eventually need to serve children from kindergarten through middle school starting with the youngest first. Services would have to be of the best quality:
certified teachers training volunteer reading tutors – most logically from Waubonsee Community College and Aurora University;
experienced theater troupes running the plays and performances;
art instruction from artists with availability of media and the required tools – kilns, cameras, canvas, drills, etc.;
science activities provided by recognized science educators
musical instruction by experienced music instructors/musicians
receptionist/secretary to check children in and communicate with families
professional staff (teachers, coordinators) to ensure that the program operate smoothly, that children be supervised and safeguarded properly, that high behavioral standards be maintained, and that the adults working with children are of sound character, and that utilities are paid, floors are swept and lights turned out at the end of each day!)
The center would have to have plenty of space to accept and organize materials and supplies and make them easily available to kids without being wasteful. Donations such as art supplies, film, old 35 mm cameras, costumes, books, tools, furnishings, computers, sound equipment, musical instruments, DVD’s and videocassettes, paper, pens and pencils, would have to be solicited, collected and organized.
There should also include a shop for children to sell new items such as art supplies, notebooks, writing supplies, cameras, children’s books, art objects, music cassettes and CD’s, as well as used items that would complement our aims. This shop would have to be as well-operated as the one at the Aurora Historical Center – attractive and cosmopolitan. Older children could be taught and supervised to run the shop (inventory, bookkeeping, ordering, cashiering.) They could earn tuition for their work in the center or they could be granted scholarships or grants to cover their fees.
This seems like a huge enterprise and it is. However, the key to its success lies in the fact that some of these resources already exist in our community
