The Southside Stars Youth Zone is completing our first month of our educational co-op! Right now you are asking “What is an educational co-op?”, so let’s start at the beginning. When the SSYZ started programming in the fall we had a mix of both home-schooled and public school youth. Through the course of the fall […]
To think where we started, to this moment in time, just fills me with joy. It’s not just the work we do, but the work of our partners and community as well. The number one request from our youth for both in the program and in the in-house store, is books. Specific books, specific series, […]
We are in full swing at the Southside Youth Zone! We have some really exciting things happening within our youth zone this spring! We are working with Wesselman Woods on a special Nature Writing program for our youth. Not only does this give our youth the chance to participate in something they are really interested in, […]
This week Quidditch practice started back up this week! The weather wasn’t with us so it was held indoors. It’s a small space to work with but it never slows these kids down! They spent Dec learning the rules, positions, and how to pass- dodge- tag out others. Yesterday “brooms” were introduced. They had to […]
Perhaps the largest “problem” is a change that older generations are just not ready to embrace. We have all heard the phrases: “they are lazy”, “snowflakes”, “they are not managing their money right because they are not buying homes”, “entitled”. Similar words were used by our parent’s parents, and their parents before them. I have […]
This past Monday, kids have started piling back into our doors for that start of spring session. It didn’t take long for the kids to start getting back into the rhythm of things and catch up with each other after our three week winter break!. At EVPL East they started exploring the world of plastic […]
Reading is the one most important skills for success in our society, yet being able to read remains a large challenge for many in our society. Yep, we are talking about literacy again! Literacy isn’t just about reading though. It’s also about being able to research and critically think in order to learn new information. […]
First let’s clear one misconception up. A Youth Zone, or Kid Zone, is not an after-school program. They may have an after-school piece to their program, or run programming during the usual hours that an after-school program would run, but the goals, content, and approach are very different. After-school programs by definition have the primary […]
It has been about a week since we have seen the kids and families. To say that Cathy and I were missing them would be an understatement. It really is amazing how close everyone grows in a program like this! It was always a hope of ours but we never expected it this quickly or […]
Even though the SSYZ is on winter break, we still wanted to give everyone an opportunity to get together. So tonight was our first Family Game Night! SSYZ youth, siblings, and parents came together to just have a good time, chat, and play some board games. We also set up an art area for those […]