FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kristian Sekse
443-845-4395 (cell)
ksekse@boardofchildcare.org

Martinsburg, WV – October 17, 2016 – The Board of Child Care’s (BCC) West Virginia programs have partnered with Blue Ridge Community and Technical College (Blue Ridge CTC) to provide tutors for youth served by BCC.

Blue Ridge CTC student tutors are education majors who are taking a class that requires at least ten hours of face to face experience with at-risk youth. The Blue Ridge CTC students will provide one to two hours tutoring weekly from October through December. Cumulatively over 200 hours of tutoring will be provided for the approximately 25 young adults living at BCC’s WV programs.

This is the first partnership between BCC and Blue Ridge CTC. Orientation for the 18 Blue Ridge CTC student tutors was held on September 26 at BCC. The student tutors received a tour of the campus and an overview of the therapy and programing offered by BCC.

“It is absolutely wonderful to have tutors coming in to help our youth,” said Jackie Columbia, Director of WV Operations for BCC. “We hope that Blue Ridge CTC will make tutoring at BCC part of the curriculum each year. It’s such a wonderful resource for our youth especially so early in the school year. It really gives them some momentum and confidence heading into the second semester.”

BCC has two program locations in Martinsburg, WV and both serve foster care youth in WV. On the larger campus youth live and go to school on the property. At the group homes youth attend public school during the day. Blue Ridge CTC student tutors will volunteer at both program locations.

The Board of Child Care has a long history of serving children and families in the community. The organization began as three United Methodist orphanages that opened in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which later merged in 1960 to become the Board of Child Care. BCC’s operations expanded from Maryland to West Virginia in 2001.

Today, the Board of Child Care’s $27 million annual budget provides programs to enrich communities, one family at a time. It offers residential, mental health, educational, and therapeutic counseling services across Maryland, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. To see a map of all program locations and descriptions of each BCC program, visit www.boardofchildcare.org.

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