Safe and Smart: Making After-School Hours Work for Kids - June 1998

A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Communities Meeting the Need for
After-School Activities


Virtual Y
New York, New York
Contact: Paula Gavin, 212-630-9694

In partnership with the New York City Board of Education, Chancellor Rudy Crew, and the United Way of New York City, the YMCA in New York is working to bring extended school services to 10,000 public school children by turning 200 of the city's public schools into Virtual Y's from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. after school each day. At each Virtual Y, 50 second-, third-, and fourth-graders take part in the Y's traditional curriculum, the spirit-mind-body triangle, designed to build strong values, enhance education, improve academic performance, and promote healthy lifestyles--with reading as the "golden thread" woven throughout to meet the national goal of helping all children learn to read well and independently by the end of third grade. The Virtual Y Book Club, which provides books and incentives for reading, is just one of many literacy-building activities in which children take part.

Families, schools, and the community--the second Y triangle--work together to make the Virtual Y program happen. To ensure collaboration between all partners, principals apply to become a Virtual Y school and make several commitments in advance, including agreeing to provide security and use of classrooms, gyms, libraries and other facilities during program hours, designating a liaison between the YMCA and the school, and acquiring approval from the PTA, superintendent, and teacher union. Family involvement is also key. On a day-to-day basis, the Virtual Y maximizes resources by using a mixture of full- and part-time professionals and volunteers, including college work-study students, AmeriCorps volunteers, and high school students involved in service learning and by garnering funds and in-kind contributions from an array of public and private sources.
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