SCRANTON, Pa. — On Wednesday, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti joined community leaders at the Jewish Community Center in Scranton to award nearly $775,000 to four organizations.
The money from the American Rescue Plan will be used to boost educational programs and give teachers the tools they need to help their students.
"It's exciting that we're here during Teacher Appreciation Week," Mayor Cognetti said. "All of this educational catch-up is designed to help our kids from K through 12 catch up on learning loss, and that'll hopefully help our teachers in the great work that they do."
Three of the four organizations that applied to receive the money focus on pre-K and afterschool children's programs—the Day Nursery Association, Outreach Center for Community Resources, and the Jewish Community Center of Scranton (JCC).
Officials say these grants are aimed at helping children catch up after the pandemic.
"It's hampered our ability to provide a stronger quality of early learning to children because of all the safety precautions and our inability to be able to really conduct programming curriculum to the point where it can be the most effective," said Dan Cardonick, CEO of the Jewish Community Center.
"Preteens and teens start to slip away a little bit, and that doesn't happen overnight. So, there's this gap that always needs to be filled to always keep children engaged with the learning process," said Travis Prince, Outreach Center for Community Resources.
The United Neighborhood Centers of NEPA also received funding for its Family Literacy Program and additional tutoring for English language learning in Scranton.
"Help to kind of shore up that learning loss that they've experienced in the past few years, and we're looking forward to doing that work and getting started and so appreciative for the support and the city's ability to appreciate our vision and help to move that forward," said Lisa Durkin, president and CEO of United Neighborhood Centers.
The $775,000 given out to these programs is just part of nearly $69 million that Scranton received through the federal government's American Rescue Plan Act.
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