A group of South County nonprofits is launching 'Community Learning in the Berkshires', a remote learning program to give kids a place to go on days they're not allowed at school.
"We're going to help them the same way a caring parent would, just helping them connect with what the school's already assigning, and making sure they're moving forward on completing their assignments," says Maria Rundle, Executive Director of Flying Cloud Insitute.
There will be two host sites: The Berkshire South Regional Community Center in Great Barrington and Greenagers' April Hill Conservation Center in South Egremont.
Rundle says each place will serve several groups of socially distanced students.
"They will be made up of 10 to 12 youth, as well as one lead educator and one assistant. And then we do have specialists coming into work with the different cohort groups," says Rundle.
The program is for students grades K-8 from the Berkshire Hills and Southern Berkshire Regional School Districts.
Greenagers Executive Director Will Conklin says after meeting with the school committees last week, they have both districts' full support.
"They made a motion to support the programming, and it was unanimous and enthusiastically so, so that just adds to the community feel of the effort for sure," says Conklin.
The program will have a starting capacity of around 70 students, so Rundle says they're mainly targeting students whose parents can't be home during the day.
"Really the priority is going to be on creating cohorts that are made up of students where they have both essential workers as caregivers, or a single family home where the caregiver is an essential or frontline worker," says Rundle.
Applications for the program are open through Wednesday September 9. Information on how to apply can be found at communitylearningintheberkshires.org.