The pandemic has affected low-income school districts, their students, families, and organizations that serve where they are most needed.

Unfortunately this year CCATE did not receive funds from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers that helped fund our after-school program and summer camp, and currently, CCATE is offering one of the only after school programs in Norristown. We believe this is crucial as studies show that without alternatives like after-school programs and summer camps, minoritized communities like Norristown will continue to suffer disproportionately in the pandemic context and beyond. Given this, CCATE has continued with both programs. Since March 2020, 42+ classes have been offered, 14 of which were during our 2020 summer camp. As we plan for this summer, we are looking to rebuild the budget lost through 21st Century funds. Your support will help us run our summer camp, with a projected enrollment of 90 students, and a focus on environmental education, photography and other visual arts, as well as college readiness for our high schoolers.

Hope Flores was born and raised in San Diego in a small Latinx community named Barrio Logan. Currently she is a master’s student in social work at the University of Pennsylvania where she met professors Dr. Holly Link and Obed Arango. Hope’s focus in social work is mental and emotional health. 

During her first summer with CCATE, Hope Flores noticed that the pandemic raised the need for an emotional support program, which  is how she began “Abriendo el corazón [Opening the Heart]", a program to provide emotional support to and educate students about mental, 

emotional, and physical health. One of the main objectives of Hope’s practice is that students can have a chance to ask questions and have conversations about issues things that they want to learn about. Hope believes that the groups help young people and adults break the machista stigma in Latinx communities that one should be tough at all times and suppress one’s emotions. We are thrilled to have this new program as we believe focusing on emotional wellness in these groups will improve the overall wellness of the CCATE community.

Nueva Science & Environmental Justice Class!

This month, the CCATE environmental education team co-led by Caitlin Brady and Dr. Rosalba Esquivel Cote, are spearheading a new weekly class, Science and Environmental Justice, in collaboration with Dr. Kabindra Shakya from Villanova University’s Department of Geography and The Environment. Through the class students are learning about air and water quality and their connection to environmental justice, and in the spring they will be designing their own projects to conduct in Norristown.

News is spreading about this class and the amazing work the environmental education team is doing - so much so that they have been invited to present at the upcoming launch of PHENND, the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development, which represents over thirty colleges and universities in the Delaware Valley region collaborating to promote local civic engagement through community-based service-learning partnerships. 

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Todo el conocimiento del mundo, desde todos y para todos.

"All the knowledge of the world to everyone, from everyone."