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The Private Industry Council of Westmoreland/Fayette, Inc is pleased to announce that it has been selected as a recipient of 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grant funds through the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
The 21st CCLC program provides funding for the establishment of community learning centers to provide academic, artistic, and cultural enhancement activities to students and their families when school is not in session (after school and during holidays and summer). Academic focus areas include literacy and math skills development, which will align these at-risk students with Pennsylvania State Standards. Academic skills that will be developed and implemented in this program will be coordinated with those that are currently addressed during the school day. Eligible students have the opportunity to participate in over 400 annual hours of quality, individualized instruction by PA state certified instructors, and will receive academic instruction and enrichment activities that focus on character education, the arts, recreational activities, and drug/alcohol education.
In 2006, the PIC received funding through the Pennsylvania Department of Education to create two 21st Century Community Learning Centers in Fayette County. Through its initial work, PIC has been successful in forming rewarding experiences for youth in the Brownsville and Connellsville Area School Districts. As a result of the positive response PIC has received from these school districts and communities, PIC is planning to create another 21st Century Community Learning Center in Uniontown. The proposed center will be housed at Lafayette Elementary School and will serve students in grades 3 through 5. Other partners include TAME, Inc./DARE2XL; Uniontown Free Library; and Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. The annual award of $146,210 is to support the afterschool program for a three-year funding cycle, subject to continued availability of funds.
According to Tim Yurcisin, President of the Private Industry Council, "Our goal with this collaboration-based program is to address the needs of targeted at-risk students and their families in academic, character, social, and cultural education activities that will improve scholastic performance and individual development. We are glad that the state is supporting our efforts to help the students of Lafayette and the community, both at the pre-school level with our Pre-K Counts center and with this new afterschool program. We look forward to our increasing collaboration with the Uniontown Area School District."
Dr. Charles Machesky, Superintendent of the Uniontown Area School District has expressed his anticipation of getting the program started. "We at Uniontown are excited to be part of the PIC program enabling us to implement the DARE2XL Program at Lafayette School. It is a much needed and highly anticipated program and we are extremely anxious to put the program into operation. We are very, very grateful for the cooperation of the Private Industry Council in this initiative - as well as our Pre-K initiative, in which we also partner with PIC - as they continue to work on the academic achievement of our students."
For more information please contact: Pat Jones, Youth Employment and Training Supervisor at 724-434-5627.
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