When the vision for CASP was born, an after-school program was just ONE of the many resources that we wanted to offer to our community. Originally, the idea was to create an organization that emphasized the wellness of the entire family and that would offer many different features - counseling, workshops, parenting classes, connections to resources, an after-school program, programs for cooking, baking, meal prep, exercise, and budgeting.
All of these activities and resources are a part of the overall, long-term plan for CASP, and becoming a "family center" is definitely on our three-year plan. But right now, as we choose to focus on kids, our desire is to create a program that will enrich their lives both academically and socially, and that will give them exposure to future opportunities that they might not have known about before.
This is the grand vision of this after-school program, and it's what will drive our work with our students every single day.
But we also want to be clear that, while our focus is on kids, our heart is for the whole family. We want to not only help and encourage and equip the kids who attend our programs, but we also want to serve and bless and enrich the families that we are connected with.
How will we do this? 1. By maintaining strong communication with parents and guardians and forming a partnership in the development of their children.
2. By helping children to look at the strengths and positive examples that they receive from their families, encouraging them to go home and show their families love and respect.
3. By connecting families to resources that can meet their needs, point them in the right direction, or enrich them in some way.
As we work with our students AND their families, our hope is that our community will be strengthened and made more whole. We believe that families are the foundational building blocks of society, and we want to do our part to help equip these families in order to help society to thrive and become healthy.