Village Gamer

RBC has announced its call for grant applications for the 2011-2012 school year. The RBC After-School Grants Project is offering more than $2 million in grants to fund first-time and renewed grant recipients. The grants are awarded by regional community panels made up of experts in the fields of youth and education. Each organization should have a mandate to keep students in grades K-12 safe and positively engaged through an enriched curriculum when their classes end each day.

 RBC After-School grants of up to $40,000 are provided by the RBC Foundation to programs in at-risk or underserved communities. The deadline for funding applications is March 12, 2012, and grant recipients will be advised by June 2012.

According to a recent RBC online survey of parents, more than a third (36.4 per cent) worry about what their children are doing after school each day. Forty per cent of parents said they are not at home between the end of the school day and dinnertime. For some parents, after-school programs are a safe and trusted alternative to their child being home alone. When asked what the top three reasons are why they enrolled their child in a formal after-school program, parents said these programs provide supervision (75 per cent), a safe environment (55 per cent) and teach social skills and team building activities (35 per cent).

To qualify for a grant, after-school programs should offer structured, supervised activities five days a week and include a variety of programs such as computer instruction, sports, literacy, music and art lessons, nutrition guidance, and help with homework.

RBC has been funding after-school programs since 1999, with over $25 million through 845 grants to 227 different organizations that have helped more than 24,000 children.