I am currently working as a co-op at the Yawkey Boys and Girls Club in Roxbury. I am a group leader in the School Aged Child Care Program where I work with children 6-12 years old. School Aged Child Care, otherwise known as SACC, is a program based in the Boys and Girls Club that deals specifically with children referred by the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Many of the children that take part in the program receive vouchers funded by the government. SACC kids are known to be the rowdiest bunch of the Yawkey Club, but to me they were just like any other kids.
In the summer I worked primarily as the SACC 6-8 year old camp counselor. The summer days were long and tough, an average day ranged from 7:30am to about 5:30pm, sometimes 6:30pm.By the end of the summer I was completely exhausted, September could not have arrived at a more pivotal moment. The beginning of school marked the beginning of a new schedule, no more early mornings. It was amazing to see the difference in the children’s behavior, attitude and energy levels. The once rowdy, overly energetic kids from the summer had become these cool, calm and focused students. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some unfocused, hectic and completely uncontrollable moments, but it was nothing compared to those summer days. Moving from a fast paced work day to a slow, more structured day was a little difficult at first. I had been so used to jumping from one thing to another, taking care of melt downs, fights, accidents, teaching academic lessons and being everybody’s’ playmate, that doing administrative work and waiting for kids to arrive from school was kind of a drag. Now that school has been in session for a couple of months, things are starting to move at a faster pace. My day begins at 11:30am, upon my arrival at the Club my job is to prepare the room for the arrival of the kids. I take down chairs, put away any objects that were left the day prior, make sure pencils, scratch paper, markers and crayons are available. Once the room is set up, I assist the director with any administrative work that he made need help with including billing and updating member’s files. Kids start arriving as early as 1:30pm and stagger in up until 5:30pm, our busiest time being between 3:00pm and 4:30pm. Upon the arrival of the children, my job is to serve as a tutor and facilitator. Now, this sounds easy, yeah make sure that kids get their homework done, but it is not! I’m sure when you think back, you can remember how much you loved doing homework…not! There are some children that come in and get right to it, ask for help when needed and go on their merry way. But there is another group of kids, kids who hate homework, deny they have it and are willing to hide it, trash it, or “forget it.” At first it was really hard for me to determine who was “telling a story,” as we say at work, and who is being honest but at this point I have it down pat. The funny thing is that these kids who say that they have no homework, have to read for twenty minutes before being allowed to go on rotation (gym, art, music, etc.), so they actually end up having to do work anyway. The point is that having to help some kids with their homework, checking other kids work and battling with others to get their homework done can be a pretty tough job. A job like this requires a lot of focus and attention. Between 1:00pm and 3:00pm, things run pretty smoothly with about 10 kids in the room at the time. The room is quite, for the most part kids are working and focusing. It is at this time at we can make believe that we have everything under control but come 3 o’clock the stampede begins. There are four of us that work together and by about 3:45pm we are all being tugged into 10 different directions. By 4:30pm our room is packed with kids who need help with homework, it gets loud, many kids are frustrated with homework and staff is working efficiently to help as many kids as possible. At about 4:45pm our kids are served dinner after which we return back to our room, sending the kids who are done work to their appropriate rotation and making sure that the kids who are not get done and have some time to enjoy themselves before going home. By about 5:15pm we have a few stragglers, but at this point the room is torn apart, our ears are ringing and there are kids being picked up. By 6:00pm most are done, all should be picked up and the clean up begins. By the time the last kid is picked up, I cannot believe how fast the time has passed. To be honest, I would not change this hectic time for anything. As crazy as it can get sometimes, I enjoy every minute of it. There are times that I am challenged and can get frustrated or overwhelmed but the hugs, high fives and progress that shows in the kids makes it all worth it. I can’t tell you how many meltdowns I have witnessed, how many times I have been yelled at by one of the kids but for every meltdown, for every outburst there has been a thank you and an apology. There is no doubt that this job has tested my patience but it has also equipped me with the tools necessary for a successful future in my field. I have developed great relationships with many of my co-workers and the knowledge and experience that I have gained from this co-op cannot be matched.
