About
After-The-Bell’s mission is to provide a safe, enriching, after-school program of recreational, social, and academic skill-developing activities for Kennett Middle School students. The program is overseen by the Kennett After-School Association which supervises a small staff along with community volunteers. After-The-Bell is provided free of charge to students, their families, taxpayers and the school district.
Students receive a healthy after-school snack, participate in their activities, and then are offered a bus ride home. This program has been made possible for over 20 years due to generous business, foundations, and individuals who donate financial resources as well as their time.
After-The-Bell’s Values
a safe place
After-The-Bell has served as a safe place for students to spend between 2:30pm and 5:00pm, which are the peak hours for juvenile crime and experimentation with adolescent risk behaviors.
Students in afterschool programs are less likely to join gangs, be victims or perpetrators of violence, become teen parents, or engage in a host of inappropriate behaviors. Studies have shown that parents are less worried and more productive when students are in afterschool programs, saving companies hundreds of billions of dollars.
Jodi Grant
Executive Director of the Afterschool Alliance
Why Strong Afterschool Programs Matter, Washington Post, December 2011