Homework Club

Program offers after-school help to students

By Victoria A.F. Camron
The Daily Times-Call
March 21, 2007

LONGMONT — Doing homework is not traditionally fun, but students in the Homework Club at Rocky Mountain Elementary School enjoying studying together after school.

Fourth-grader Valentina Garces, 9, has participated in the Homework Club for two years.

“I love to come every day,” Valentina said. Staffers at the Homework Club help her a lot, she said.

“When I do a mistake, they help me fix it,” she added.

This is the third year Alternatives for Youth, a Longmont nonprofit agency, has operated the Homework Club at Rocky Mountain Elementary. About 40 students in grades two through five attend four days a week, program director Mary Vigil said.

When Gardner DesRoberts became principal of Rocky Mountain Elementary last fall, he insisted the program expand from twice a week.

“It provides an academic resource after school,” DesRoberts said.

Alternatives for Youth also operates homework clubs at Columbine Elementary School and Heritage and Trail Ridge middle schools, helping about 150 children total, according to the agency.

Homework Club is a collaborative effort between Alternatives for Youth and the St. Vrain Valley School District. Its $140,000 budget comes from public and private funding, including Boulder County, the city of Longmont, the Longmont Community Foundation and the Education Foundation of the St. Vrain Valley, according to Alexa Behmer, the agency’s resource development director.

Each dollar spent on after-school programs returns between $3 and $10, according to a report from the Jared Polis Foundation. The savings come from “decreased use of public services and from increased earnings and productivity” through better education, the report stated.

At Trail Ridge Middle School, between 10 and 25 students participate in the Homework Club, principal Valerie Millert said.

“It’s a nice option for kids and parents,” Millert said.

Last year, according to Alternatives for Youth, 70 percent of students either maintained good grades or improved their grades.

In addition to improving students’ grades, the Homework Club boosts their self-esteem.

Bertha Olivares, 24, was shy before she participated in the Homework Club as a fifth-grader, she said.

“I was afraid to talk to people,” said Olivares, who later volunteered for the program.

In 2000, Alternatives for Youth hired Olivares; now, she plans to attend college and become a teacher, she said.

Similarly, Erika Ibarra — now a senior at Skyline High School — credits the Homework Club and Alternatives for Youth with helping her overcome shyness and encouraging her to attend college. She plans to major in business administration at Metropolitan State College of Denver, she said.

Ibarra, 18, participated in the Homework Club as a sixth-grader at Heritage Middle School and began volunteering for the program in ninth grade. Now, she is a part-time employee of Alternatives for Youth.

“I’ve been really successful being in this program,” she said.

Without the Homework Club, her life would definitely be different, Ibarra said.

“I wouldn’t have known as many things as I know,” she said. “I probably wouldn’t have plans to go to college.”