Best Practice 3

The program benefits children 5-12 years old, residents within Nicosia Municipality area. Priority is given to children coming from all nationalities (Cypriots and immigrants); from lower income families, single-parent families, large families or unemploed families.

This program operates during the school period: Mon-Fri 13:00-18:00 and during summer holidays Mon-Fri 07:00-18:00. The services provided are various and include homework support; creative activities and educational activities; bus service for pick up the children from their schools accompanied by a group leader; provision of lunch; ssupport on homework by teacher; creative activities such as theatre and art classes, ballet and piano, dance, swimming, chess, table tennis, etc; educational activities such as computer classes and English language classes; excursions and outdoor activities; group discussions on various subjects such as behaviour, culture, etc and projection of educational-recreational films.

In 2017, 65 children participated in the program during the school period and 85 children during the summer holidays period.  In the final assessment of the program, in a Liker-scale (1-4), 32 parents participated, grating their overall satisfaction with the higher level ‘A lot’ (Mean=3.9). Throughout this program, cohesion is promoted by the provision of equal opportunities for underprivileged children. Many of the creative activities provided by the program would be a great expense for the families. Balancing work and family is a great advantage not granted for many families. Within this program parents (especially mothers) are disengaged from the care of their children in order to facilitate their labor market entrance or continuation.  The children during their participation to the Program interact with children from different cultures and populations. This promotes acceptance and understanding for differentiation within the community.