Center Helps Shine Light on Summer Youth Programs While Providing Key Resources to Organizers
Virginia Commonwealth University offers a bevy of youth programs, and no time of year brings more kids to its campuses than the summer. Individual departments and schools throughout the university provide unique ways for kids ranging from young children to high school seniors to explore their interests and have a great time.
The variety of programs and the breadth of university units offering them has made it difficult in the past to gain a comprehensive look at the offerings. Two new efforts, however, are making it simpler both for university officials organizing programs to understand their responsibilities and how they fit under the university umbrella and for interested members of the public who are seeking fun camps and other youth programs.
The public-facing effort is a centralized listing of VCU summer youth programs. The list, which can be found at community.vcu.edu/community-resources/summer-youth-programs-/, marks the first time that the university’s myriad youth programs have been available in one place. Now, instead of hunting through individual program pages in search of a good fit for their kids, parents can simply use the centralized list to research their choices.
Through the list, they will find activities to match any interest, ranging from animation and orchestra to dental hygiene careers and chemistry research.
“VCU offers a plethora of engaging youth activities during both summer and the school year, and now we’ve made summer opportunities accessible to the community,” said Tina Carter, director of the Mary and Frances Youth Center.
A related effort is the development of a centralized process to address the safety of youth on campus. VCU launched its youth protection policy, Safety and Protection of Minors, in July 2016. The policy, which was created through a working group chaired by the Division of Community Engagement and the Integrity and Compliance Office, brings consistency to the ways that youth-oriented programs are organized across the university and makes clear to organizers the requirements they must follow to host youth activities.
Read the full VCU News article.