Tanager Place piloting new after-school program at Roosevelt Creative Corridor

CEDAR RAPIDS — Tanager Place is piloting Iowa’s first after-school Freedom School program — which has been shown to increase students’ literacy, self-esteem and love of learning — at Roosevelt Creative Corridor, a middle school in Cedar Rapids.

The program is created by the Children’s Defense Fund and strives to give children the opportunity to enhance learning through characters that look like them and have had similar experiences. It builds students’ home libraries, increases their confidence, boosts their interest in social and civic engagement and advocacy and addresses mental health risk factors.

The Cedar Rapids Community School District will assist Tanager Place in recruiting 20 to 30 students to the program based on their reading scores, said Crystal Hall, director of community-based and prevention services at Tanager Place.

Tanager Place was chosen as one of three programs in the country to pilot a Freedom School after-school program.

“I’m just really excited for our community and young people that this could be another resource to benefit kids in the community,” said Tanager Place CEO Okpara Rice, who is working to fundraiser for the program.

Tanager Place partnered with The Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School program for the first time in 2021 to offer a six-week, free summer school to students in Cedar Rapids.

Last year, 20 of the school’s students were tested at the beginning and end of the program. Rather than show summer learning loss, they showed an average increase of a year and four months in instructional reading levels, according to data from the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools.

“We have this proven track record of getting really good outcomes,” Hall said.

Freedom School was offered again this past summer to 60 students — double the number from last year. Data on the 2022 program is not yet available.

There are not many academic after-school activities for middle school students, Hall said. "To have something for middle school students that’s academically sound and readily available to meet the needs of kids, that’s very exciting to me,“ Hall said.

Students will spend Monday through Thursday focusing on academics — and fun, Hall said. Fridays, students will get to explore through field trips and guest speakers. Students will receive tutoring, homework help and learn literacy, science, technology, engineering and math and social and civic engagement.

Two AmeriCorps members in partnership with the Iowa Afterschool Alliance will staff the program. They’ll be joined by students at local colleges and universities. Programming is expected to kick off by the end of September, Hall said.

Dr. Kristal Moore Clemons, national director of the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School Program, said she hopes the after-school program provides a feeling of belonging for students and families. The program also is designed to be culturally responsive, which means incorporating students cultures and life experiences into learning to help them see themselves and their communities as belonging in academic spaces.

“We want to make sure all scholars feel safe and included in the learning process,” Moore Clemons said. “We try to find stories that center the experiences of children.”

The Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School is rooted in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, which provided a reading and humanities curriculum of English, art, creative writing, math and science.

Relaunched in 1993 by Marian Wright Edelman, the program has reached more than 150,000 children since 1995. It’s offered at 182 sites in the United States.

Tanager Place helps children and families in Eastern Iowa overcome challenges and find mental wellness. It offers treatment, outreach and prevention and gives children tools to be successful.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com