City Kids kicked off our 2020-21 Program Year on Monday, September 28th with our Fall Kick-off Event. Typically, the kick-off event is held in-person at our City Kids Office. This year, because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we invited City Kids participants, their families, current staff, volunteers, and Board Members to a virtual Zoom event.
We celebrated the many individual and group accomplishments during our 2019-20 Program year. We highlighted in-person program activities between September 2019-March 2020 and we highlighted virtual activity outputs between March 2020-August 2020. We also gave participants and families an overview of Fall Program activities per-program level and ended the event with a virtual version of a City Kids favorite camp activity, Song Wars.
This Fall, we’re implementing a combination of virtual activities and in-person programs with participants. Virtual programs include College Prep activities, community service activities, a movement challenge, game nights, 1:1 student check-ins and tutoring support, and weekly wellness activities.
In addition to virtual activities, we are also implementing in-person program activities with adapted COVID-specific policies. We followed our standard process of protocol design for our COVID-19 Policies and Procedures, which includes significant research and review by members of the Program Leadership Team. These policies are based on recommendations from the CDC, the District of Columbia Department of Health, and the American Camp Association.
This past weekend, our Leadership participants went to a community garden near the City Kids office and participated in Team Building activities in-person for the first time in 7 months. We have weekend in-person trips planned through mid-December for all remaining program levels including trips to a farm, hiking in local parks, and team building activities.
