Who They Are
Branches provide life-changing opportunities for working families to help them and their children break the cycle of generational poverty. Their program areas that serve children and youth focus on student achievement, and their Achieve programs focus on financial stability services for families and individuals.
What They Do
Branches’ focus is on student achievement, family services, and financial wellness and their programs serve children, youth, adults and families through three respective program areas:
- Grow Program – serves elementary students preparing them for lifelong success through enrichment of their minds, bodies and hearts. Engagement with the students begins after school with tutoring and homework help but continues with enrichment activities including: Summer Shade Camp, Recreational Activities, Social Skill Development, Mentoring and Healthy Meals and Snacks. The Branches Grow program serves 250 children each year and is among the top 10% performing programs as rated by The Children’s Trust. Over 400 students attended the 2018 Summer Shade camp, who otherwise would have no enriching or safe program to attend when school is not in session. Branches also hired 30 of its Climb program youth to serve as summer guides (camp counselors) for Summer Shade, enabling them to earn some money, build their resumes and learn valuable leadership skills.
- Climb Program – serves middle and high school students focusing on the development of their individual assets in order to maximize opportunities to become better students and better people. Through the guidance and support of caring staff and volunteers, Branches youth are able to participate in: Life Skills, Service Projects, OASIS Spring Break Camp, Academic Tutoring and Retreats. By participating in Climb activities, youth stay on track to climb in their outlook, climb in school and climb in life. The Climb program serves over 160 youth each year. Over 200 students attended the 2018 OASIS Spring Break camp where they could retreat away from the pressures of their daily lives in order to experience a supportive environment.Branches also recently launched the Climb to College & Career program which prepares and assists high school students to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviors necessary for postsecondary success. The program currently serves 188 students and provides a series of workshops, mentoring and completion of a postsecondary plan. The college and career students will be eligible for a Climb thru College Scholarship designed to enable highly motivated high school graduates who have participated at Branches for at least two years to compete for college or technical/vocational scholarships. This additional support is intended to be an incentive and a reinforcement toward successful pursuit of becoming a postsecondary graduate.
- Achieve Programs – provide a continuum of financial services that equips and enables families to achieve increased financial stability and long-term success in life. Achieve programs create opportunity, stimulate productivity and ultimately lead to financial stability and long term success.
How You Can Donate
Our $1,000 donation is supporting the activities of Climb to College & Career that creates opportunities for youth from low-income backgrounds to prepare for post-secondary success through intensive SAT/ACT prep, mentoring, financial education, academic tutoring & support, and life skills development. An example of their impact is that in just the past two years, their students have increased their SAT scores by 19% enabling them to gain entry into more competitive universities and qualifying for more grants and scholarships. Most recently, one of the Branches students was accepted to and offered a full scholarship to Yale University! Here is a link to a brief video showing her reaction at the moment she found out she had been accepted to Yale: https://youtu.be/9o4Y-BLs2rY
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