A student quietly reads inside the East Boston Social Center’s School Age Child Care program’s newly rehabbed facility in Central Square.
The East Boston Social Centers’ (EBSC) after school program, once only available in Eastie and Chelsea, will now be available to parents in Winthrop and Revere.
“We definitely saw a need to begin servicing these areas,” said School Age Child Care Director David Cali. “We are excited to be able to finally get transportation from the Social Centers to these two communities so we can begin expanding the areas we serve.”
The EBSC’s School Age Child Care (SACC) Program provides high-quality and affordable after school care, fully licensed by the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC), to children ages 5 to 14, at two sites in East Boston: Orient Heights and Central Square. The program’s after school activities offer literacy development, problem solving skills and scientific and artistic discovery.
The program also provides project based learning opportunities with attention to the child’s needs and interests.
“We work to understanding how children learn and develop using the Massachusetts guidelines for curriculum framework and learning benchmarks to compliment the learning that happens in school,” said Cali.
Special Activities include parent and child workshops with dinner and childcare, open houses, guest speakers, and community fieldtrips.
“We also provide full- day child care during the weeks of school vacation for those children who are enrolled during the school year,” said Cali.
Year round, the affordable after-school care makes use of multicultural curriculum; small and large group homework help with access to computers, field trips, organized sports, performing arts, special projects, storytelling, and more.
Recently, the program earned an accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) – the nation’s leading organization of early childhood professionals.
To earn NAEYC accreditation in the new system, the Social Centers went through an extensive self-study process, measuring the program and its services against ten new NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and more than 400 related accreditation criteria.
In the 20 years since NAEYC Accreditation was established, it has become a widely recognized sign of high-quality early childhood education. More than 11,000 programs, serving one million young children, are currently accredited by NAEYC – approximately eight percent of all preschools and other early childhood programs.
The NAEYC Accreditation system has set voluntary professional standards for programs for young children since 1985. As of September 2006, the Association’s revised program standards and criteria have introduced a new level of quality, accountability, and service for parents and children in child care programs. The new standards reflect the latest research and best practices in early childhood education and development.
The EBSC is a non-profit 501(c) (3) in operation since 1918, with a variety of programs that serve a culturally diverse, low-income population of more than 3,000 members from Eastie and the Greater Boston community. Aside from the school age program, the EBSC offers after-school program for at-risk youth 13-18; summer Playschool which gives more than 300 children and families a safe, educational and fun place to spend the summer; and a nutritional, social-recreational and support programs for senior citizens.
For more information or to enroll a child in the after school program, please call: Kelly Silfies – Enrollment Coordinator for School Aged Child Care at 617-569-3221 ext. 25 or email: [email protected] or School Age Child Care Director David Cali at [email protected].