After School Program
Editor’s Note: This announcement went out via email this week, but constitutes months of dreaming, planning and recruitment and coordination. Suddenly, our familiarity with virtual platforms creates an opportunity to reach out to blind kids in new and innovative ways!
Dear Parents/Guardians:
Thank you for being strong and supportive partners in your blind/low vision child’s educational journey! We know that homework, some new concepts and various skills can be overwhelming to tackle. Perhaps at times, your child might just need to check in to refresh their knowledge about a particular topic. Our new program, Homework Club, is here to assist!
The National Federation of the Blind of Colorado, the Colorado Center for the Blind and the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults are excited to announce the launching of the Homework Club for K-12 students who are blind/low vision. The Homework Club will begin as a virtual program with the potential to move to an in-person program later in the school year. We will have licensed teachers, including Teachers of Visually Impaired/Blind Students, present at every session. Additionally, we are partnering with a program at Metro State University of Denver. This will give us an opportunity to have student teachers complete some of their practicum hours with the Homework Club under the supervision of a licensed teacher. At the same time, these teachers-in-training learn early in their careers about working with blind/low vision kids.
Tutoring will be offered in the following areas:
- Math
- Literacy
- Assistive technology instruction
- Braille instruction
We will expand this list based on students’ needs.
Beginning on October 5, 2021 the Homework Club will offer two one-hour sessions on Tuesdays and two one-hour sessions on Saturdays. Tuesday sessions will be available at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Mountain Time, and the Saturday sessions will be at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Mountain Time.
Signing up:
We ask that parents and guardians first fill out an enrollment form for your student. Once this form is completed, you will receive a link to register for sessions of Homework Club. You can then sign up your student for individual Homework Club sessions. Families can sign up for one one-hour session per day. One month of Homework Club sessions will be opened at a time. We are starting small and will be supporting up to five students during each one-hour session. That is a total of 10 students on each day.
Enroll your student for Homework Club here!
The Homework Club is provided free of charge to students and families. Donations are greatly appreciated, however, and can be made at coloradogives.org/grow-our-blind-youth
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.
Michelle Chacon
Teacher of Students with a Visual Impairment
blindedcolo@gmail.com
P.S. You can also contact Anahit LaBarre, Youth Services Director at the Colorado Center for the Blind at 303-778-1130, 223, or alabarre@cocenter.org.
