INDIANAPOLIS — The pandemic has put a tremendous strain on families across Central Indiana. Many parents are figuring out how to balance working while helping their kids do virtual learning. IU Indiana Kids Programis hoping to ease some of that burden for students.
"We think that all students and families should have access to educational support, emotional support. That's really why we do what we do," Kayla Nunnally, one of the women who runs the program, said. "We provide tutoring, mentoring, college and career readiness workshops. We really work with the families to find out what they want."
Before Covid-19, a lot of the program's work was done in person. Everything is now virtual, which required adjustments.
"Upgrading technology is really what we had to do along with learning all the different platforms [schools are using] across the state who are doing E-learning," Nicole Oglesby, who also runs the Kids Program, said.
Seven IU Campuses have the program to serve their communities. Students get to learn from a variety of people.
"Typically, you may think it's only education majors, but no, we have diverse majors and bilingual college students," Oglesby said. "That's the beauty is the individualized opportunity the families get with an IU college student."
Both Nunnally and Oglesby stress this program is free and they want families to take advantage of it. You can enroll your child by clicking this hyperlinked sentence. Right now, Indiana Kids Program is for 6th through 12th graders. They're working on expanding in the coming weeks to elementary aged children.
