JONES CENTER FOR FAMILIES INC

Program: Teen Center

Program Description:

The Jones Center Teen Center is open every day after school, and offers teen programming every Friday and Saturday night, offering engaging, safe and supervised recreation at no charge to teenagers. Activities include karaoke, pizza & movie night, game night, and coffee bar night, as well as swimming and skating.   In 2009, 7,522 teens attended the 113 programs and 17,783 visited the Teen Center.

The Center was recognized in 2010 as the “2010 PTA Business of the Year” by the Springdale City Council PTA because of our tremendous outreach efforts and youth programs, including the ability to host sizeable school functions such as the regional high school ‘Academic Competition in Education’ championships, regional History Day competition and the DECA competitions. Local high schools hold their graduation night parties here to encourage safe and controlled festivities.  

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Program: Summer Youth Academy

Program Description:

In 2008, Springdale was identified as the highest need community in Arkansas for quality out of school offerings based on the final report of the Arkansas Governor’s Task Force on Best Practices for After-School and Summer Programs.  Thus in 2009, the Center initiated its Summer Youth Academy (SYA) program, an eight-week educational and recreational program for children ages 9-12 held in June and July.  The camp featured themed weeks with a structured curriculum including: Art, Drama & Stage, Cooking for Kids, The Great Outdoors, Sports & Fitness and Science.

 

Nearly 500 children were enrolled during the inaugural year in 2009, an estimated 60% of whom were considered low income with some special needs children.   A carefully chosen staff of certified public and private school teachers and elementary education major college students were hired to inspire and mentor the students. Through support from corporate sponsors, the Center was able to keep the SYA affordable for families with a fee of $45 per week per camper.  More than 300 children attended on scholarship. Based on user surveys from last year, the 2010 SYA was restructured, based on an analysis of a needs assessment, to further improve the Center’s ability to meet the community’s needs. This year, we served almost 700 8-12 year-olds at SYA, still at the very reasonable $45 per week fee, and offered early-morning drop-off care. Most of the children attend the camp on full or partial scholarship, and many would be home alone if not for the program. 

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Program: Health & Wellness

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Health Education classes and fitness activities are made available to diverse groups within the community and many are offered in English and Spanish. Instruction and presentations focus on self-care and wellness, exercise and water aerobics, nutrition, childbirth preparation, baby care, tobacco cessation, lifeguard certification, blood pressure and heart disease. Participants range in age from middle school children to senior adults.   In 2009, 7,318 people participated in 162 health classes and 3,971 participated in 832 fitness programs. A minimal fee is charged for many of the classes offered. In addition, an annual fall health fair with more than 100 booths serves an estimated 2,000 attendees from across NWA.

 

The Jones Center is an American Heart Association Training Center in NWA. As such, it both offers regular CPR classes to the general public year-round and is responsible for the training, quality assurance and recordkeeping for the 55 CPR trainers in the geographic area. Approximately 2,300 people took CPR last year from a Center CPR trainer. The target audience includes expectant parents, health care professionals, students, day care workers, teachers, businesses and civic groups. The need for this type of training is important since only 2% of the general population actually knows how to administer CPR.  Class participants pay a minimal fee, much less than they would from an alternate provider. Low-cost childcare is available to all adults participating in any Center activity.

 

Another health & wellness program at The Jones Center took place on a day in November 2009 at the Arkansas Health Dept. Mass Immunization Clinic where over 9,200 flu shots were given in one day at the site. The Center was considered the only location in Washington County able to both attract Caucasian, Latino and Marshallese populations and accommodate the crowds of people seeking the vaccinations. Another large immunization session will be again held at the Center in October 2010.

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Program: Community Development Education

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A number of basic community development classes take place at The Center including Citizenship, English as a Second Language, and GED courses (in both English and Spanish).   Participants of these programs are more likely to successfully find work in the region and succeed than those who haven’t. The Naturalization Ceremony for NWA takes place at the Center. Plaza Comunitaria also takes place here to provide primary and secondary education for Spanish speakers with the materials provided by the Mexican Consulate. These Latinos, once they have mastered literacy in Spanish, have a much better chance of learning to read and write in English and successfully integrating into the community. The Jones Center also offers basic and advanced computer courses in its newly renovated Computer Center. In addition, The Center provides the AARP Driver Safety Program in NWA aimed at older drivers to improve skills and reduce crashes.   The Center also offers the “Safe Sitter” program to teach adolescents how to handle emergencies when caring for children. The motto is “Better babysitters today, better parents tomorrow.”

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Program: Senior Life Programming

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