After School
Throughout the school year, ACLAMO Family Centers in Norristown also holds an After-School Program. Its mission is to support school readiness and school achievement among at-risk children in Norristown Area School District's Spanish-speaking community, and to foster commitment to education through family involvement.
Currently serving 50 English language learner (ELL) children in kindergarten through 7th grade, the program has operated for more than 15 years with support from United Way and the Norristown Weed and Seed Program. ACLAMO is now in its second decade as Norristown’s bilingual community learning center, comprehensively targeting the needs of English language learner students. The After-School Program adheres to United Way performance standards for youth development programs.
ACLAMO’s program team of ESL teachers, social workers and volunteer tutors from local universities improve school achievement through enrichment to boost English, reading, math, science and other skills. The team works to bridge language and cultural gaps by providing bilingual home and school counseling in collaboration with parents and Norristown Area School District teachers, counselors and other officials. ACLAMO is fortunate to have the services of 30 college student volunteer tutors from Cabrini, Ursinus, Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Eastern.
The program operates according to the Norristown Area School District’s calendar. Teachers and college student volunteers offer homework assistance and tutoring to 50 students from kindergarten to 7th grade, Monday to Thursday from 3 to 6 pm. Each afternoon, students arrive and have 20 minutes to wash their hands and eat snacks. Through the Philadelphia Archdiocese After-School Food Program, we provide healthy snacks such as cereal, nutritious sandwiches, milk, fruit and granola bars. Students are then divided in small groups. Each group is assigned to a tutor to focus on homework. When students complete assignments, they rotate through ACLAMO’s computer learning lab and enrichment activities related to what they’re doing at school, and/or geared to boost essential skills in a variety of dimensions. We also maintain a system of rewards and prizes.
Our main objectives are to help students to strengthen basic skills and school achievement, overcome language barriers, and motivate them to reach their full potential. The program helps ELL students realize they can set and achieve their own educational and personal goals. The program team interacts with parents nearly every day as they drop off and pick up their children. We assist parents during parent-teacher conferences by serving as interpreters, encouraging them to participate actively in the educational development of their children.
