Guiding the Way, Lighting the Community
HARC is excited to offer this new program in the 2024-2025 school year! The Lighthouse After-School Program is a partnership between houses of worship in Washington County and Washington County Public Schools to provide after-school programs to meet a critical need, enrich the lives of children, provide good role models/mentorships, and potentially free up parents to work longer days. Last school year, there was a waiting list of more than 200 children for after-school programs; our goal is to help ensure that all children who want to participate in an after school program can do so.
How it works
Program Leads – from houses of worship, community groups, or from the community at large – provide an after-school program at a school of their choice (within select schools) one, two, three, or four days per week for a full marking period (typically 7-8 weeks). These “clubs” could include just about any talent or interest you can share! Examples of current or pending clubs:
- MC/Songwriting
- Financial literacy
- Who makes the rules? (civics)
- Game club
- Arts & crafts
- World cultures
- Coding
- 4H/life skills
- Cooking
- Astronomy
Schools offer the clubs to students, and students sign up for the clubs they’re interested in.
Schools we’re currently serving
Bester Elementary School
Eastern Elementary School
Jonathan Hager Elementary School
Salem Elementary School
E. Russell Hicks Middle School
more schools to be added soon
How you can help
To make this program successful, we need:
- Program Leads who can commit to regular sessions for at least one marking period and who have a passion for working with children. This role can be paid a stipend or gifted as a volunteer.
- Volunteers who can assist in the clubs
- Volunteers who are willing to substitute for program leads, if needed
- Monetary donations to help fund the program. WCPS is covering some, but not all, of our costs. Donations can be made here: https://harccoalition.org/donate/.
For more information or to help with any of the above needs, please contact Angela Yamashita, Program Coordinator, at 240-347-0780 or yamashitaangela6@gmail.com .
