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Discovery
Club
Discovery Club
is an after-school program that opens doors to a brighter and healthier
future for youth in nine El Cajon schools, grades three through eight. We
serve nearly 300 students a day who would otherwise greet an empty house
after school. Through a collaborative effort by Communities Against Substance
Abuse, El Cajon Recreation Department, San Diego 4-H and East County Help
Ourselves, Discovery Club provides the following:
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Life skills development |
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Tutoring
and homework assistance |
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Team
and individual sports |
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Arts
and Crafts |
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Nutrition
education |
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Guest
educational speakers |
Opportunity
for Children
Everyday, far too many
children are lost to alcohol and drug abuse, gangs and crime. Discovery
Club provides our youth with a strong foundation to become healthy,
contributing members of our community. It offers activities that foster
healthy choices and positive lifestyles, and it creates an environment conducive
to learning, personal achievement and positive activities to enhance self-esteem.
Opportunity
for You
You can help. Through
seed money from the National Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Discovery
Club has been providing after school prevention programming in local
schools since March of 1996.
We need funding to expand the program. Materials, supplies and snacks will
give the program more substance and variety to excite and maintain children's
interest. Support from you can help Discovery Club give youth and
families an opportunity to succeed.
Become a partner for prevention today. Call Bett McDade, Prevention Specialist @ (619) 442-2727
ext. 106, or e-mail: preventionspecialist2@eccasa.org
More
about Discovery Club philosophy
Discovery Club
reduces risk factors and cultivates resiliency, or protective factors. Research
identifies four characteristics of a resilient child that act as a buffer
against the many risk factors encountered by youth every day. These are:
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Social competence |
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Problem
solving skills |
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Autonomy |
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A
sense of purpose and future |
Socially competent
youth are flexible, empathetic, caring, have good communication skills,
and a sense of humor. Discovery Club activities designed to improve
social competence among youth include:
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Team building and social interaction with games, competitions, sports,
celebrations. |
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Community
service projects like "Adopt a Grandparent," park cleanups, tree planting. |
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Health
promotion projects. |
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Cultural
awareness programs. |
Youth who possess good
problem-solving skills can be flexible, think critically, try alternative
solutions to problems, plan, meet the demands of their environment and produce
positive change. Problem-solving activities include:
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"Project
Charlie" life skills training on conflict resolution, anger management,
communication skills, relationship building. |
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Homework
assistance, tutoring and literacy skill development. Youth who
are autonomous have a sense of independence, power and control.
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Youth who are autonomous
have a sense of independence, power and control. Autonomy of youth activities
include:
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Creativity and self-expression projects, creative writing, arts and
crafts, talent shows. |
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Mentoring
with high school students as role models for middle school students,
and middle school students for elementary students. |
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Responsibility
training, fundraising, reward systems, election of officers, goal
setting. |
Youth with a sense
of purpose and future have healthy expectations and a high achievement
orientation. These youth do not feel like victims, and are goal-directed
and persistent. Activities that develop a sense of purpose include:
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Career development and educational enrichment activities. |
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Leadership
development. |
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