Greenwood Shalom After School Program
In 1999, the Greenwood Shalom After School Program was founded in the living room of one of its current board members. It was a fitting beginning: The organization, which has since moved to the Greenwood Memorial Church in Dorchester, provides intensive academic support to children from around the city—of the 33 children currently enrolled, nearly all test below grade level and more than 30 percent have special needs—but it has also become an important gathering place for families.
“It’s not just a drop-in after-school program,” explains Tanna Preston, Greenwood Shalom’s executive director. “It’s not just 
about helping children with homework. It’s about helping parents become engaged in their children’s lives on various levels.”
During the 2002-2003 school year, Greenwood joined the United Way’s Engaging Families Initiative and began offering structured activities for parents and families: workshops on parent-teacher conferences, cultural outings to the Wheelock Family Theater, day trips for apple-picking. (At the beginning of every year, the program sends out surveys to parents asking what they’d like to see offered.) Aside from providing memorable experiences—some of the families had never been to the theater, or outside of the city—such activities, says Preston, allow children to see their parents in a different light.
The relationship between the families and the program has deepened as a result, and now it is not uncommon for parents to approach the staff with questions or problems; Greenwood Shalom, which is affiliated with the Black Ministerial Alliance, then refers parents to the appropriate organization or agency. And the staff has found that engaging parents trickles down to the children. As just one example, Preston points to the parents who have pursued GEDs and have enrolled in community college with Greenwood Shalom’s help. “The children think, ‘Oh, Mommy is studying,’” she says, “and they realize that it’s important for them to study, too.”