Salvation Army After School Program

Periodically, the ASLRC blog will highlight an after school program in the Charleston area. This week, to continue the subject of poverty and after school programs, the Salvation Army was highlighted for their program that fits the needs of many low income families.

The Salvation Army provides countless amounts of services to those in need in the Charleston area. This includes an after school program at their church on Ashley River Road. There are currently 36 kids enrolled in the program and they have 4 paid staff members. The students are from ages 5 to 12 years. The students come from several schools in Charleston County including Drayton Hall Elementary, Springfield Elementary, Oakland Elementary and Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary and more. Salvation Army staff members pick up students from Oakland Elementary and Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary and the remaining schools provide buses for the students to get to the program. Each day when the students arrive they have snack time followed by homework/tutoring time, then “resource center” which includes play and social learning, and lastly some free time. The Salvation Army uses the ABC voucher system of South Carolina. The Department of Social Services provides funding to the program. This funding goes towards the tuition for students from low income families. Certain students can get partial scholarship or full tuition paid by DDS. The price of this after school program is as follows: $40 for one child, $65 for 2 children, and $90 for 3 children. The Salvation Army after school program also receives generous donations for snacks from the Lowcountry Food Bank as a part of their Network of Feeding Partners program. As their community director, Kat, says, “No child is ever left out of this program. We take any type of student with any type of needs!”

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