After-School and Summer Programs
Youth-at-Risk After School Program
The program offers quality after school programming for children ages 9-15, attending the Loucks-Edison Junior Academy. The program provides challenging and exciting age-appropriate activities in a safe, structured, and positive environment.
Activities Examples:
- Homework assistance and tutoring
- Social skills training
- Recreation
- Computer training
- 4-H
- Library time
- Community Service
- Service Learning Projects
- Educational Field trips
- Youth advisory board
Our staff provides transportation for all participants. Participants are picked up at the school upon dismissal (3 p.m.) and are transported to our Knoxville facility. At 5:30 p.m., our staff transports participants home. The program begins the day after each Labor Day Holiday and runs through the end of the school year. A maximum of 15 participants can be served.
Youth-At-Risk
Summer Achievement Program
During the summer, we offer a free 8-week day camp for all Summer Achievement Program participants. Participants will enjoy the opportunity to participate in basketball, tennis, swimming, golf, self-defense, Boy Scouts, performing arts, 4H, cooking classes, weekly field trips, and arts and crafts.
A mandatory program orientation is required for all parents to enroll their child. A maximum of 16 children can be served. Contact us today for the specific dates and times this program is available.
Heart-of-Peoria After-School Program
The Heart-of-Peoria After-School Program provides after school programming for children ages 5 – 12, who reside in the Central Bluff Region of Peoria. Children benefit from excellent facilities and dedicated volunteers.
The program provides tutoring, social skills training, computer lab, arts and crafts, sports and recreation, 4-H, Boy Scouts, music appreciation, performing arts, community service activities, and education field trips.
The program begins at 3:00 p.m. and ends at 5:30 p.m. during the school year. Parents can pick up their child at the facility or request that we transport the child to their home. A maximum of 16 children can be served.
Heart-of-Peoria Summer Program
During the summer, we offer a free 8-week day camp for all after-school program participants. Participants enjoy the opportunity to participate in basketball, tennis, swimming, golf, self-defense, boy scouts, performing arts, 4H, cooking classes, weekly field trips, and arts and crafts.
A mandatory program orientation is required for all parents to enroll their child. A maximum of 16 participants will be enrolled. Contact us today for the specific dates and times this program is available.
Respite Services
Day Respite Program
The Day Respite Program provides support to working adoptive, foster, and intact biological families whose children are experiencing difficulties in school due to poor behavior and are required to serve an out-of-school suspensions.
Target population includes youth who are:
- Ages 7 – 14
- Serving out-of-school suspension (ten day maximum)
- Children of working adoptive families foster families, or intact biological families whose parent(s) are employed full-time or attending school full-time or secure employment.
Project Respite Help
The PRH program provides extensive respite child-care services and weekly support group programming for adoptive families and families in the process of adoption. In providing this service, the program works to assure the permanency of the adoptive placement, family unity, and extended support networks for families.
The program serves adoptive parents and parents in the process of adoption, who have children ages 0 – 14, who reside in Peoria County, and are in need of respite care.
Project Children First
Counseling & Family Services and Crittenton Centers have collaborated to provide an expansion of their current respite and support services for at risk families in Peoria, Tazwell, and Woodford counties. The purpose of Children First is to provide emergency/respite childcare for children 0 – 14 years of age in families that are under stress or experiencing a crisis. In addition, the program will provide support group activities for parents and children, and child abuse awareness activities throughout the community.
Community Prevention Education Programs
Abstinence Education
We are aware of the problems confronting our children by the temptations of premarital sex and how we are dealing with the resulting consequences of out of wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and emotional trauma. We provide an eight-week educational abstinence program called “Choosing the Best.” The program is designed to help our youth gain knowledge of the risks associated with sexual activity and the benefits of being abstinent.
Aggression Replacement Training
The Aggression Replacement Training (ART) program was developed by Counseling & Family Services and Peoria Central High School staff, to address the needs of high-risk students, in need of essential social skills training, with the goal of preventing out-of-school suspensions.
The target population is Loucks-Edison Junior Academy and Peoria Central High School students who are serving an in-school suspension due to their behavior. A trained ART facilitator provides 2.5 hours of group instruction to in-school suspension students each day of in-school suspension. The students participate in group discussions covering areas such as empathy, anger control, skill rehearsal, character education, and conflict resolution.
For program information and Referral Services
To make a referral or to receive additional program information, please call Counseling & Family Services Knoxville Outreach Center at 682-4621.
