Children, Youth & Families

Uplifting children, youth & families

Out-of-School Time

Volunteers of America, Dakotas’ out-of-school time programs provide targeted academic support. We partner with the Sioux Falls School District Community Learning Center After School Program to serve and support students in need of additional help to get ahead and stay ahead in school. Out-of-school programs are located in select Sioux Falls School District schools, which allows us to provide services to students and families right in their own neighborhood. Our programs utilize evidence-based strategies aimed at promoting academic achievement. Staff provide educational activities, homework help, and tutoring. Through these services, our out-of-school time programs aim to help students make improvements in math and reading while developing the social skills they need to succeed in school and beyond.

Camp POSTCARD

Camp POSTCARD (Peace Officers Striving to Create and Reinforce Dreams) is a free, weeklong summer camp that brings together law enforcement officials and middle school students from the Sioux Falls area. This unique and powerful experience gives youth and law enforcement the opportunity to connect in an environment that pushes them out of their comfort zone. Students and law enforcement officials will be encouraged to learn from one another and see each other from different perspectives.

School Resource Officers play a critical role in Camp POSTCARD. They serve as the sole referral source, nominating and selecting students to attend. During camp, School Resource Officers and other law enforcement officials fill the role of camp counselors as they lead youth through activities to help them develop self-esteem, leadership, and decision-making skills while building trusting and respectful relationships.

Camp POSTCARD serves youth who are facing challenging circumstances and could benefit from building positive, trusting relationships with adults. The camp is designed to improve youth’s attitudes towards law enforcement and enhance law enforcement officials’ connections with youth.

Look Up and Hope

Volunteers of America, Dakotas is one the only programs in the nation that works with mothers in prison, their children, and the children's caregiver to break cycles of poverty and incarceration and to change the future for these families. Look Up and Hope is a national initiative started by Volunteers of America aimed at strengthening families who have been disrupted by the incarceration of mothers. Volunteers of America saw that mothers were the fastest-growing segment of the prison population and that there were very few programs tailored to their complex needs.

We provide counseling and case management for the families, as well as assistance in finding housing, education, food, employment, and transportation to enable families to become healthier, self-sufficient, productive members of their communities.

Each member of the family also has coaching to help them to overcome their challenges and reach their full potential, as well as to help the family function in positive and productive ways. These services are specifically designed to lend continuity with the goal of emotionally healthy children and a stable family life.

GreaterGoods

Contact:

Address: 47185 Wild Clover Cir. Sioux Falls, SD 57107
Phone: 605-444-2490
Email: greatergoods@voa-dakotas.org

Hours:

Monday - 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday - 8:00 AM - 6:30 PM
Wednesday - 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday - 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday - 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

GreaterGoods is a retail donation program operated by Volunteers of America, Dakotas in partnership with Good360. Good360 is the global leader in product philanthropy and purposeful giving. They partner with some of the world’s largest corporations to source essential goods and distribute them through a network of diverse nonprofits like Volunteers of America, Dakotas.

The goal of GreaterGoods is to strengthen nonprofits throughout the region by lowering supply costs and to improve the lives of individuals and families through resources to meet basic needs and enhance quality of life.

Through this program, retailers donate high quality new and like-new items to Volunteers of America, Dakotas. Nonprofit members (including nonprofits, schools, and churches) pay a minimal admin fee to access these donated items, which they can use within their programs to lower operating costs or pass on directly to individuals and families who need them.

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