As schools have transitioned between virtual and hybrid learning at different times over the last several months, the United Way of Venango County’s five learning hubs in the county have been helping students who are struggling with remote learning.
“There’s a growing need we’re seeing. Kids are struggling because of virtual learning,” Will Price, the executive director of the United Way of Venango County, said. “The hubs will stay open through the end of the school year if the schools are in virtual or hybrid,” Price added.
“I like in person better. It’s easier when the teacher is in the room with us,” Dathan Weaver, a seventh-grade student in Valley Grove School District, said Friday at the learning hub in Rocky Grove. Weaver and five other students, four from Valley Grove and one from Franklin, were at the Rocky Grove hub Friday.
“Two hubs are seeing 20 to 25 kids a day, some others are seeing seven to 15 a day,” Price said. “The numbers go down depending on if the schools are in hybrid or virtual.”
As students return to in-person learning at Franklin and Valley Grove, those hubs are seeing numbers decrease, said Corrina Woods, executive director of Youth Alternatives of Venango County that has partnered with United Way on the Oil City, Franklin and Rocky Grove hubs.
But Woods also noted “two new kids registered last week, so there is still a need.”
Kristine O’Dell, a Youth Alternatives program coordinator who oversees the Rocky Grove hub, said a majority of the students at the hubs attend every day they are not in school.
In addition to academics, staff members at the hubs help students navigate their schools’ virtual platforms to find and complete assignments and then save the assignments. They also assist with other tech support.
“Some students said they didn’t have assignments and they truly thought they didn’t have homework but they did,” O’Dell said. “All the students down to kindergarten have computers. We help them with tech use.”
She added that when the hub began, many students were clicking submit without having done the assignments while others were doing the assignments but turning in blank documents because they didn’t know how to save their work.
“We check the kids’ assignments to make sure they are done right,” O’Dell said. “We get to know them and what they can do on their own and what they need help with. With the ones who are behind we do a few assignments with them every day to get them caught up.”
O’Dell added that she is in close contact with teachers at both Valley Grove and Franklin.
Food for the students is provided to the Rocky Grove hub by Valley Grove School District, and headphones for each student and other supplies are provided by the United Way. Free Wi-Fi and headphones are provided, but children must bring their own technology device.
“The kids needed something. We had to think outside the box to keep them on track academically or get them back on track,” Woods said. “Some were regressing badly.”
O’Dell said information about the hubs spread by word of mouth when they first opened, and by the beginning of January there was a spike in the number of students coming to the hubs.
Woods said that for the most part all the students at the hubs who were behind in their studies before Christmas break were able to get caught up.
“The parents have been very thankful,” she said.
Price said parents interested in the hubs are asked to give their local hub a call.
In addition to Youth Alternatives, United Way partnered with Next Step Therapy in Seneca and the Boys and Girls Club in Emlenton to open the Seneca and Emlenton hubs in early January.
The hubs are open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and are free to any students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
