cyberyouth
salem cyberspace - cyberyouth program
Mission of the CyberYouth Program
The Salem Cyberspace youth programs, CyberYouth and CyberCorps, engage low-income, primarily Latino youth from 7th to 12th grade (ages 11 – 18) in a free after-school academic program.
The mission of CyberYouth and CyberCorps is to encourage teens to become active learners and to provide them with the support, advocacy, jobs and tools necessary for them to succeed, both socially and academically, in school and persist in education beyond high school. Our goal is to encourage students to find their passion and help them develop the emotional and cognitive skills to achieve them. We work with youth to improve their academic performance, to teach them to problem-solve, to become more literate in English and computers, to explore their creativity, to flourish within a diverse population, and to develop workplace skills. We are successful if our students graduate from high school as self-confident, self-sufficient and productive members of their community. The CyberYouth program includes the active engagement of parents in their children’s academic success, advocating for students within the schools and exposing students through a variety of experiential learning projects and career workshops and internships that they would not otherwise be exposed to in their day-to-day lives.
CyberYouth consists of four major programs:
1. The Academic Center
- Academic Improvement – Staff and volunteers help our youth with homework and provide tutoring for those children in need. To date, among our student participants, we have a 100% pass rate on MCAS and 100% who graduated high school in 4 years and went on to college.
- Academic Enrichment – We offer Digital Arts curriculum, including Photoshop and Web/Graphic Design and Video/Photography. We also offer PC Tech training, science projects and educational fields trips
- Social Skills Development: This year youth participated in a peer mediation project run in collaboration with North Shore Community Mediation Program
2. English Literacy (ELL Street) – using technology, we ran a pilot program with 4 learning modules to enhance the speaking and writing skills of ESL II/III learners. We use video, wikis, blogs, and, of course, MS Office, to develop writing, enhance vocabulary and build confidence in speaking.
3. College Prep College Prep- We assist youth with SAT Prep and voucher applications, college planning, and 8 college visits (UMass, Salem State, Wentworth, Mt Ida, Lasell, Art Institute of Boston, Mass College of Art, Suffolk).
4. CyberCorps - Youth work at CyberSpace to deliver web and graphic design services for local organizations. These students not only learn about technology but also learn how to take direction, work within a team, work on a deadline, manage conflict, provide customer service and finish a project on their own in a quality manner. These youth are paid for work performed based on their contribution to the project.
These youth built their own website www.cybercorpsofsalem.com
Click on the Portfolio to see examples of their work.
CyberYouth is partially funded by the City of Salem Department of Planning and Community Development, US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Para informaçion en español, por favor llamar 978-740-6667