Burlington YMCA helps students develop critical skills after post-pandemic learning loss
The Alamance County Community YMCA, is still working to respond to the demand for academic resources created by the pandemic.
Recently, Alamance-Burlington Schools conducted testing that showed students were improving significantly compared to test scores from 2021. When measuring end-of-grade/course testing from the past academic year, the results showed that more students scored at grade level or above in comparison to last year.
However, according to another Times-News article, fewer students are performing at grade level than in 2019. Therefore, it's likely that the pandemic influenced this change in performance.
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The Alamance County Community YMCA has been assisting students through their afterschool program to keep them engaged and help them to develop critical skills. Kim Grooms, the organization's director of operations, feels that the virtual environment established throughout the pandemic has impacted already academically-challenged students.
"Basically, the students that we ended up serving are the students that would've needed extra academic guidance even in school," Grooms added. Therefore, many of these students struggled to have to learn "a whole different way of learning" in a contrasting environment from what they were used to.
According to Grooms, the Alamance County Community YMCA offers a "traditional afterschool program" with a "focused homework environment," where staff members assist students with their assignments. "One of the main components," she added, "is food-insecure children and academically low-performing students."
To combat this issue, the local YMCA offers a food program that feeds approximately 350-400 students every day, providing them with a hot meal and snacks. "If you're hungry, you can't learn," said Grooms, who feels that food insecurity is directly tied to underperformance in the classroom.
Read more: Alamance-Burlington Schools latest district to hear complaints about LGBTQ-themed books
In addition to these resources that they offer, the Alamance County Community YMCA also provides scholarships to students each year whose families may be struggling to pay. Grooms stated that they give away roughly $75,000 annually in scholarships for their youth programs, but they must fundraise each year to acquire the funds to do so.
The NC Alliance of YMCAs tested 3,100 youth between February and May to assess the effectiveness of their afterschool programs, according to a press release from the organization. This testing showed that at least 87% improved in at least one character development competency and 66% in two or more of the five competencies.
Throughout the 2021-22 academic school year, the YMCAs throughout North Carolina have served approximately 21,000 students in before and after school programs, according to the press release.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Burlington YMCA still helping students find their way back after pandemic
