Ansonia starts Empowering program

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ANSONIA – This fall Ansonia Local Schools will be joining Greenville in its goal to help struggling students by offering the Empowering Darke County Youth After School Program.

“We’re pleased to be the first school district outside of Greenville to initiate this program,” said Jim Atchley, Superintendent of Ansonia Schools. “It’s another opportunity to provide tutoring instruction to our students,” he continued, noting that they have students who definitely need the help. “It (the Empowering Program) is a great innovation that we can use to serve our students,” he added.

The Ansonia program will be available to first through fourth graders for the 2019-20 school year. Atchley and Elementary School Principal Ashlee Fourman indicated that these were the grades they wanted to offer first. Like the Greenville Empowering program did in 2016, Ansonia is leaving other grade options open for the future.

“We are delighted that Ansonia is going to be working with us this year,” said Executive Director Bob Robinson. “As our name implies, our goal is to reach any student needing extra help, regardless of the school district he or she lives in. I’d like to thank Jim and Ashlee for joining us in this objective.”

Speaking on behalf of the Empowering Darke County Youth Board of Directors, Vice President Susi Halley said, the board is thrilled to extend this invaluable program to Ansonia Schools. “Many thanks to Jim and Ashlee for organizing it for the benefit of their students,” she added. “They are the first to take on our expansion of going countywide and we look forward to their great success.”

Atchley commented that this wasn’t the first time Ansonia followed Greenville’s lead to help their students. “We were the first to follow Greenville with its Bridges to College program, too,” he said. “It’s also a great program and we’re still involved offering it to our students.”

Robinson noted that the Empowering Summer Tutoring program has worked with students from nearly every school district in Darke County. Parents take advantage of free tutoring at Edison State for small group tutoring, and the Greenville Public Library for one-on-one tutoring. The Greenville After School Program continues to grow, with 139 requests for help last fall. Over the 2018-19 period, the Empowering program worked with 161 Greenville students, kindergarten through eighth grade. Since the program’s inception in March 2016, Empowering tutors and volunteers have worked more than 15,000 hours with 612 students.

The Empowering Mission: Empowering Darke County Youth is a 501c3 United Way Partner providing After School and Summer Tutoring programs to assist students in the areas of language arts and math with the goal of Strong Students for a Strong Community. If you would like more information or to help, go to Empowering Facebook or email: [email protected]. Donations and letters of inquiry may be sent to P.O. Box 1113, Greenville 45331.

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