Our After-School Program

Services and Activities

FDDOC Winners’ Circle offers a high-quality after-school program incorporating the following major strategic components:

• Academic enhancement activities in English/Language Arts and Math using innovative teaching strategies. The academic focus involves more than just helping participants with homework and does not repeat regular school day activities. The program captures and builds on children’s academic strengths and weaknesses, using authentic resource materials and not just worksheets, textbooks, and workbooks.

All students are pre-tested in Reading/ELA and Math for development of an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) to address targeted academic skills. Students are also mid-tested and post-tested for progress reporting and reporting gains to parents and the school district. Once the ILP is developed, strategic teaching and research-based curricula are utilized to improve student achievement.

FDDOC Winners’ Circle hires highly-qualified certified teachers and paraprofessionals to ensure program success. It also has a clear plan for involving daytime teachers in progress reporting and joint problem solving to address and meet a child’s academic needs.

• Arts, recreation, and technology activities reinforcing Louisiana academic content standards. FDDOC Winners’ Circle provides exciting enrichment opportunities that integrate technology, recreation, and the arts with academics. Some of these include art, music, dance, piano, computers, science, photography, film-making, nutrition, physical education, tennis, soccer, basketball, and cheerleading.

• Relationship-building activities that strengthen youth’s connections with adults, their school, and community through the use of mentors and other positive adult role models, volunteerism, character education and other relevant activities. FDDOC Winners’ Circle provides appropriate youth development and other constructive personal skills development activities that help participants identify and avoid behaviors and situations that may put them at-risk. An example of one such program for elementary students is “Be a Buddy, Not a Bully”.

• Creative and recreational activities that increase a youth’s interest in and exposure to the world beyond their local neighborhood. FDDOC Winners’ Circle has developed strong partnerships with local libraries, museums, churches and universities to provide extra learning opportunities that foster critical thinking skills, persistence and other positive work habits through hands-on activities. A partnership with LSUS has given our high school students the unique opportunity to learn more about the world of technology from professors on campus. Additionally, FDDOC Winners’ Circle provides fieldtrips to Sci-Port, a fun, educational environment for students to explore and actively engage in the world of mathematics, science and technology.

• Parental involvement activities that bring families into the program for educational, social, parenting, and life skills enrichment. FDDOC Winners’ Circle maintains an open-door policy that encourages participation by adults and other family members. The organization supports parental involvement activities at the schools such as the Lights On After-School Celebration, Family Literacy and Math Nights, Book Bingo, Parent Teacher Association Meetings, Halloween Learning Carnivals, and LEAP/iLEAP Test Awareness Sessions.