For Working Families, Sitar’s Aftercare Program Fills a Critical Need

LeAnne DeFrancesco, Vice President at Vanguard Communications

Aftercare. A simple term but an often complex system to navigate for parents whose jobs don’t allow them to pick up their kids when the school day ends. Beyond getting kids from school to an aftercare facility, the cost can be a factor, making even convenient or desirable programs out of reach for working families.

That’s where once again, Sitar Arts Center bridges a gap.

Sitar began its first aftercare pilot program in Spring 2015 to provide a place for children to thrive via a range of arts activities. In the beginning, there were just six students tucked into a corner of the Center, but when Sitar expanded its facility by 2,500 square feet in 2017 following a two-year capital campaign and renovation project, it was able to open the doors to nearly 50 additional students in grades K through 8. 

According to Sitar’s Aftercare Coordinator Jordan Smith, “Aftercare programs are important because they offer working families the flexibility to work and provide for their children, while their children enjoy a fun, nurturing environment that provides enrichment in academics and the arts.” 

Sitar’s aftercare program is multifaceted, encompassing:

  1. Educational support through a partnership with For Love of Children (FLOC), an organization that provides educational services beyond the classroom. 
  2. Emotional support via Restorative Justice Circles, which are designed to resolve conflict and solve problems through collaboration.  
  3. One-on-one teacher support; and
  4. Opportunities to grow and learn in daily art activities like Capoeira, a dance that evolved from Brazilian martial arts.

Two program tracks are designed to serve the different age ranges: K-3rd grade and 4th-8th grade. In this way, Sitar ensures the classes and projects are developmentally appropriate. 

For families, aftercare at Sitar is appealing because there is a dedicated staff focused on providing the strongest possible programming for the students. The variety of exciting art classes like Capoeira, photography, acting, and oration are all available at affordable prices. 

“More than anything else, it is the connections we make with our families that keep them here,” says Smith. “Sitar is a community. We support the whole child and the whole family, and as a result, many of our families have stayed with us for years.”

Another element that makes this program special is that it runs year-round, providing a basic developmental need: stability. Students can rely on a consistent safe space outside of school to grow and be themselves. 

Families also benefit from the peace of mind of knowing where their children are and what they are doing with their time.

“Our families know that every day there is a safe place for their students to go where they will receive a healthy snack, get help with their homework, participate in fun activities and classes and be with people who genuinely care about them,” says Smith. 

The biggest challenge in operating this program is balancing the needs of all those involved. Getting to know each and every student and their families are essential so that Sitar can support each student’s needs. According to Smith, this is the most rewarding and most difficult to balance aspect of the job.   

However, there is no doubt that the program has made an impact on the community. 

Sitar evaluates its programming by surveying parents, teachers and Sitar staff on the impact and outcomes they observe in students. In the last three years, they have seen huge improvements in students’ creativity, confidence, and communication. 

One Sitar parent described the changes in her daughter as being more creative and focused at school and with projects at home. 

“Sitar is a place that our families and students view as a home away from home,” Smith says. “When you take classes at Sitar, you are not just signing up for a class, you are signing up to become part of the Sitar family.” 

Currently, there are 38 students enrolled for the 2019-2020 school year with room for more. To find out more about aftercare enrollment at Sitar Arts Center, go to www.sitarartscenter.org or call (202) 797-2145. 

Member Spotlight: Meet Wendy Hagen, 2018 Recipient of the 2018 Woman of the Year Award

Wendy Hagen Headshot
Wendy Hagen, 2018 Woman of the Year Award Winner Photo Credit: Headshots by Elliott O’Donovan –

How I Got Started 

Prior to starting her own, Wendy was the EVP/Partner with Porter Novelli where she ran the strategic planning and research group.  When leaving Porter in 2009, she wanted to focus on the aspect of the work she was most passionate about: brand strategy. Wendy then started consulting with nonprofits on refreshing their branding and messaging based on solid research insights. Soon after, she launched her own business and was hired by a former client to assist his association in their search for a full-service agency to launch a $20-million national campaign. Currently, she now works with clients on agency searches. In addition, she has been fortunate to have a flourishing consulting business and work with challenging clients and outstanding creative, research and PR partners. 

Challenges in Public Relations 

What Wendy finds most challenging, in a good way, is digging through tons of research and uncovering audience insights that lead to a compelling strategy, value proposition and messaging.  What she doesn’t find most challenging in a not-so-good way is running out of toner cartridges and having to run to Staples in the middle of a project.

The Benefits of Joining WWPR

Wendy joined WWPR after the honor of being selected as the 2018 Woman of the Year.  While she was certainly aware of WWPR and had many friends and colleagues who are active in the organization, it wasn’t until the Woman of the Year event that she truly recognized what an extraordinary group this was. She was inspired by the other accomplished WoY finalists, Kate Perrin and Gloria Rodriguez, and their tremendous dedication to the profession and to helping women prosper in PR.  And, she has been incredibly impressed with the commitment and engagement of the WWPR Board and professional community. 

2018 WWPR’s Woman of the Year (WOY) Award 

As anyone could tell from her stunned reaction and acceptance speech, Wendy was delightfully surprised to have been selected as Woman of the Year by WWPR.  She was thrilled to be recognized, having had a rather non-traditional career path that combined a background in advertising, client-side marketing, PR firm leadership and launching her own branding consultancy. To her, it was so gratifying to receive so many well wishes from friends and colleagues who celebrated this award right along with her.. Wendy is so grateful to WWPR for this honor – it meant so much to her.

Involvement with Other Professional Organizations

Wendy has always been a believer in engaging in professional organizations and networking with peers. Throughout her career, she’s been active in and served on the Boards of the Advertising Federation of DC, American Marketing Association (DC Chapter), and served on the Steering Committee for Advertising Week DC.  For the past year, she has been mentoring a young woman who’s building her communications career, and gaining as much from the experience and exchange of ideas as she (hopefully) is!

Keeping up with the latest PR Trends 

Wendy keeps up with the trades (PR and advertising) and makes an effort to connect with her personal network of professionals across a variety of disciplines, from researchers to public affairs professionals; graphic designers to digital strategists. She loves reading about award-winning communications campaigns, and always gains new insights by reading about winning submissions whether it’s PRWeek Awards, THOTH, Sabre Awards or Effie’s.  Wendy geeks out on books about strategy, creativity and behavior change, and always find cool new ideas in Fast Company magazine. 

Trends Happening in Communications

There’s more focus on research-based strategy and insight and much more demand for measurement and evaluation.  But, the one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of storytelling and creating a unified brand and compelling narrative. Clients expect agency partners to be proactive, strategic and integrated communications experts.  

Favorite Things to do in the DMV

Wendy lives in Dupont Circle and is a big fan of walking all over the city (especially when she can bring her dog, Rufus, along). She and her husband recently tried electric scooters for the first time (so fun!). She has also served on the Board of Woolly Mammoth Theatre for ten years and absolutely loves going to see provocative new plays that speak to issues of today and makes one think to get out of your comfort zone. 

Advice to Communications Professionals

She believes that all communications professionals need to be students of culture – to stay curious and try to gain an understanding of what’s going on in our neighborhood, our city and in society in general.  Wendy recently read Robin DeAngelo’s book, “White Fragility,” about the discomfort many white Americans feel about confronting racism. She looks forward to participating in an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion workshop this Fall and feels that this profession still has a long way to go in terms of inclusivity and representation. 

 

President’s Note: September 2019

WWPR 2019 President, Senior Governmental and Political Outreach Associate Director, American Society of Anesthesiologists

As the fall season kicks off, I know everyone’s schedule suddenly becomes busy — including WWPR’s schedule of events. So this month, I’m going to ask you to do three simple things:

As you may have seen, we have decided to do a modest increase in our member dues, effective October 1. We’ve made this change to accommodate an increase in the costs of running our programming. It comes after more than five years without any change in membership pricing. But to better ensure that WWPR programming we lead is useful and valued, we are doing a survey of our membership. Please take 5 minutes to fill out this simple 12-question survey – we want to hear directly from you, our members.  Your responses will help us shape our upcoming events for the next few months and years!  

We will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of our fall signature event, the Woman of the Year Awards, on Friday, November 15. Tickets — and sponsorship opportunities — are available now.  You will not want to miss this event where we will recognize a woman who is leading the field of communications, while also looking back at 30 years of previous honorees. In honor of the anniversary, we are recognizing “Pearls of Wisdom” throughout the celebration.

The Woman of the Year Awards is just one of our events scheduled for the rest of the year, and a few more will be added soon. So whether you’ve been waiting for our Media Roundtable, want access to the exclusive senior-level communicators breakfast, or just want to network at our holiday party, save the date for an event with WWPR before the end of 2019.

 

President’s Note: August 2019

 

WWPR 2019 President, Senior Governmental and Political Outreach Associate Director, American Society of Anesthesiologists

While it may still be hot and humid here in D.C., August means the summer is winding down.  Meanwhile, WWPR is gearing up with several of our keynote events in the second half of the year.

We are an industry that tends to thrive on deadlines, so there are several important ones I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention.  First, applications to nominate the WWPR Woman of the Year are due tonight, August 23 at midnight. This is the 30th anniversary of our keynote event, and we will be recognizing our prestigious previous honorees while celebrating our finalists.  I encourage you to recognize your peers and mentors by nominating them for his award. Also, if you’re looking for a unique way to highlight your brand in a room of several hundred established communications professionals, this is it!  Contact sponsorship@wwpr.org for more information.

Second, applications for the next WWPR Pro Bono client are due by next Friday, August 30 at midnight.  Since 1993, WWPR has served a pro bono client that supports women and/or families in the DC area – and we’re looking for our next good cause to support with the stellar communications skills of our member volunteers! 

Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention tickets for one of our most popular events, the annual media roundtable are now on sale.  Get them while you still can – this event always sells out!

On a quick note, I want to point out one of the things that makes WWPR so special, and that’s the diversity of our represented fields, members and programs.  WWPR covers a very broad array of communications fields, whether you’re in graphic design, digital, media relations or internal communications. Similarly, our membership and programming welcomes women, men, and any other gender identity of communications professionals.  This diversity is what makes us so unique and so strong. So if you have a coworker who wasn’t sure this was the right organization for them, encourage them to join you for one of these fall events so they can learn about why WWPR is so great.

 

5 Ways Sitar’s Early Childhood Arts Program Develops the Whole Child

The Early Childhood Arts Program at Sitar is uniquely designed to provide a safe space where children can discover, explore and develop their inherent talents. The program uses art as a vehicle to foster self-confidence and self-esteem in children younger than six years old as they undergo the most critical stage of their development. Here are five ways Sitar’s Early Childhood Arts program fosters an enriching learning environment focused on developing the whole child.

Sitar’s Early Childhood Arts Program provides art classes for babies and toddlers ages 0 to 6 with their parents or caregivers. The classes advance children’s development, foster an early appreciation of the arts and provide opportunities for bonding between the child and parent, as well as interaction with other parents, caregivers and children. Classes are in Music, Dance, Creative Movement, Visual Arts, and Bilingual Drama. Tuition is based on a sliding scale.

When the Early Childhood Arts program began more than 20 years ago, Sylvia Zwi, the current Dean and Director of Early Childhood Arts and Professional Development at Sitar, led the Center’s first childhood education music class. Today, Sitar’s early childhood music class is one of the most popular classes at the Center and is also one of many classes available to explore. Other popular classes include Infant Massage, Singing and Flamenco.

Parents can register their child in individual classes or in a more extensive program for the fall, spring or summer semesters. During the weekly Artful Play program, children rotate between different art sessions with healthy snack breaks and socialization. Another Early Childhood Arts summer program, Small Wonders, includes mediation and sessions that fuse art and STEM subjects to foster both mindfulness and scientific learning.

“Allowing children to rotate during these programs gives them the opportunity to explore and connect with several distinctive disciplines through classes such as Introduction to American Sign Language through Singing, Rainbow Dance, Bilingual Guided Dramatic Arts and Visual Arts,” Sylvia says.
Empathetic and Supportive Teaching Artists

The program started and continues to develop based on research that children are best primed for cognitive, social-emotional and sensory development before they turn five years old.
Their experiences during these early stages of life have a direct impact on their overall development and on the adult they will become.​
With this knowledge and the help of compassionate, experienced teaching artists, Sylvia helped develop a framework that comprehensively supports a young child’s development.
Sylvia says Sitar’s teaching artists are committed to learning and refining their own best practices. They follow a technically-rigorous framework where a young child’s capacity to learn is recognized, valued and nourished.

“Curiosity, exploration, creativity, critical thinking and trust are just a few of the core values and skills embedded in every class,” Sylvia says. “Incorporating these values promotes self-advocacy in an environment where children are encouraged to openly explore their interests free of fear and judgment.”

Parents and Children Teaching and Learning Together
All parent and child classes are structured so that both parties can be engaged.

“Authentic parental engagement is a key facet of the process,” Sylvia says. “We find that when parents, teaching artists and children participate in the classes together, trust and community are built.”

Focus on Literacy

Regardless of the art form, all classes are designed so adults routinely read with the children, which supports literacy and helps children bond with their parents.

“Every class has time dedicated to reading exploration. Teaching artists often develop entire lessons around books,” Sylvia says. “Emphasizing the importance of literacy inspires and excites parents and their children to read together more.”

Celebrating the Artistic Process

Sylvia says the artistic process is itself an art that deserves positive recognition. “Every session is a celebration of the joy the process brings to both individual and their collective experiences,” she says.

To celebrate this process, many of the young children who take the early childhood arts classes share what they have learned in an end-of-the-semester showcase or open class. During these moments, students may perform a dance routine or display their artwork in an intimate setting.

“The showcase is simply a way for parents and teaching artists to celebrate and support the growth and progress our youngest students have made since they’ve started their journey at Sitar,” Sylvia says.

Kandis Wallace, WWPR Member, Marketing Manager, University of Maryland – Robert H. Smith School of Business

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