Erie’s Housing Authority has introduced a new after-school program called PAL HOPE Aspires.<\/p>\n
This new effort strives to keep kids off the streets and give them a safe haven after school hours.<\/p>\n
The Eagle’s Nest Athletic Center has a new chapter in store. Children living in Erie’s public housing now have a new safe space.<\/p>\n
The PAL HOPE Aspires program aims to fill a much-needed gap with stability, trust, and positive relationships.<\/p>\n
“The program has an opportunity to be a generational change for the community, for the police department, and for the residents that we interact with. I’ve been with the Housing Authority for about 14 years and have a relationship with a lot of the kids. I’ve known them by first name. I’ve actually seen some of the kids who now have kids of their own, and being able to talk to them just makes it a different level,” Corporal Mike Roofner from the City of Erie explained.<\/p>\n
The program is offered to children in third through fifth grade and includes a variety of engaging activities. Those activities include homework help, transportation, and one-on-one mentoring sessions with officers.<\/p>\n
Children are at their most vulnerable during after-school hours. Those involved with the new program say making an early positive impact can be life-changing. The program also strives to build stronger community relationships with officers.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to have our police officers deliver the curriculum to the students to build those relationships and help them see that these are people you can trust in your community. If you ever need an additional person to turn to, you have a trusted adult who can help you,” Tyresha Barnes, program coordinator for PAL HOPE Aspires, said.<\/p>\n
The program will start October 7 and run through the last day of the Erie School District calendar year.<\/p>\n
HACE plans to grow and expand the program over the next three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erie’s Housing Authority has introduced a new after-school program called PAL HOPE Aspires. This new effort strives to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[119711,29330,136,138,119712,137,55840,119710],"class_list":["post-287739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-after-school-program","tag-community-policing","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-housing-authority","tag-erie-news","tag-mentoring","tag-pal-hope-aspires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}