B.Holla

For my next YDEV event, I attended a "youth night" at the YMCA in Middletown, RI, where I intern at currently. It goes from 6-9 and is hosted almost every Friday night for children between the ages of 10-14. It gives these children a chance to spend more time at the YMCA, and gives them a safe place to spend their Friday night. The ideology is that if kids these ages are more supervised in a safe space such as the YMCA on a Friday night, it will keep them from doing inappropriate bad things, such as smoking or drinking. It is important that at these ages (middle school) that kids are closely monitored and given a certain amount of attention to ensure that they don't misbehave and act out outside of school and home. The YMCA staff facilitated many activities for the children while they were there from 6-9. For starters, the staff organized a co-ed basketball game. There were about 15 children in attendance. This game went on for over an hour. At which point, the staff or

For one of my events for YDEV, I had the opportunity to attend the lights on after school event at the YMCA Newport County. This specific event however was located at Aquidneck Elementary School. It was nothing like I expected, but in a good way. Aside from already having the YMCA after school care team in attendance, the YMCA also had a personal trainer come along to teach the kids some exercise techniques. In the gym, she had groups of 8 kids at a time performing various exercises such as burpees, push-ups, jumping jacks and more. It was interesting to see how the kids responded to doing these exercises. Some children thoroughly enjoyed them, while others complained and said they would rather play basketball or soccer. Downstairs in the cafeteria where the rest of the children are, there are two other women leading activities with the children. This is all part of the lights on after school committee. The women are playing musical chairs with the children, as well as teaching them