We all need people around us. We all need community. When you are a child or a teenager, community is all the more important. Our Homework Clubs travel weekly to three different locations to provide this kind of support.
Our desire is to provide a safe, stable, encouraging and welcoming community in the form of small groups.
The Homework Clubs program provides homework help to children ages 8-15 in three different locations. The program is supervised by one of our employees (Gabi) and made possible by volunteers. One of the challenges we have noticed during the past years is that even when children are at the same age level there are many differences in their academic level. Some of the children are in 5th grade and do not know how to read or write well. Others do not know the multiplication table. Our vision is to try to provide educational help as well as expose children to Bible stories, knowing that the true change in the life of a person takes place in the soul. We are passionate about leading children by example and investing in them by using any opportunity to share the Gospel with them.
The Homework Clubs (HCs) all have a reward system which encourages participation and attendance. Each time a child attends one of our HCs, he or she can receive up to three stamps for the following things: good behavior, good academic performance and attendance. Once a month, the HCs have a shopping activity called “The Shop” (in Romanian “Magazinul”). Every child can use their accumulated stamps and purchase something from our bins with goods, including school supplies, little toys, sweets, etc. The children can decide to use their stamps at each Shop date or to save their stamps to have more stamps available to purchase something more valuable at a later Shop date.
Another incentive we offer as part of our rewarding system is that when a child accumulates 50 stamps, they qualify for a special outing which could be a field trip at a zoo or a museum, a trip to visit another city, or eating out at a pizza restaurant.
Homework Club Locations
Toarcla (Tuesdays), 10-15 children
Mandra (Thursdays), 15-20 children & teenagers
Combinat (Fridays), 20-30 children