ECS has received a contract for Philadelphia's new Out of School Time (OST) program. This initiative replaces the Beacon Centers that have served city communities for nearly a decade. The staff of the ECS's own Beacon Center have been retained to provide the new OST services at their existing location at Feltonville Intermediate School.
Apart from the name, the most visible change in the new program is that ECS will be serving more children. Both the school year and summer sessions will have slots for 150 elementary school students and 60 middle school students. Although ECS was not selected to serve high school students as it did as a Beacon provider, the agency will look for ways to continue involving older youth.
"We have always maintained a waiting list for our Beacon program, so we are excited to be able to meet even more of the demand in the neighborhood for out of school time services," said Lori Medica, director of community programs at ECS.
The new OST program will build on ECS's record of community involvement and educational enrichment as a Beacon provider. The transition from Beacon to OST programming officially began on July 1.
The program will be primarily funded by the City of Philadelphia and administered by Public Health Management Corporation, a non-profit organization that serves southeastern Pennsylvania. Under the contract terms, ECS will receive approximately $550,000 to operate the program, but must match 15% of that from private funding sources.
