Happy Halloween!

As we’re moving into the fall, we’ve been hard at work refining our skills and creating opportunities for the kids. We’ve been meeting weekly for trainings, (including incident reporting with Alexis, and injury reporting with Judy) operation planning, and policy review. We’ve put in a lot of work to advance policy clarity and proper documentation.

We’re grateful for a lot of support in the past month: Darlene and Bonnie for helping supply individual material boxes to aid students with online learning, Babson college re-engaging their tutor program through videoconferencing, and we’ve had our fittings for violin lessons soon to be led virtually by Mary and Hsuan. The students’ individual boxes have been filled with classroom supplies and fidgets. They’ve great for letting kids participate in classes with minimal distraction, less group supply interaction, and more agency, as well as providing additional resources for better class experience. One student from Interfaith said that they enjoyed their call with Babson, citing their tutor as “funny, chill, positive.” He’s excited to work with him moving forward.

We’ve been having difficulty with weather cancellations of the Community Investors activities. The kids have especially enjoyed Power Play— especially with lengthy indoor lessons, the group outdoor activities are most welcome. We hope for more consistency and opportunities in the spring.

While we’re excitedly waiting for the renovations for Interfaith center, Dahiana and Ken have put together activity packets for the kids to keep them engaged, provided meals through the YMCA and Loving Spoonfuls, and completed an amazing relocation of the near-entirety of the Interfaith center’s interior! While it’s been challenging to have lost the site, we’re looking forward to new, better facilities.

At Pusan, after classes and lunches, we’ve been leading games outside and have made time for reflections and storytime. We’re planning engaging STEAM activities for kids who have wiggles once class is done. The kids just made clay emblems, and are looking forward to painting them! On top of plans for projects we generated, we hope to collaborate with other programs in developing more options and activities for kids out of school. We celebrated Halloween with fun costumes and treats. We’ll carry our cheer into November, and continue to work hard to provide excellent service and mentorship.

-The Hoops and Homework Team