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Vimenti reveals achievements during 1st semester, needs of population it serves

Integrated services center Vimenti by Boys
& Girls Club of Puerto Rico presented the results of its three programmatic
areas obtained during its first semester of operation, as well as the center’s
impact in the Ernesto Ramos Antonini housing project community.

Through its educational program, its social
program and its economic development program, Puerto Rico’s first charter
school finished its first semester serving 57 Kinder and first grade students, plus
133 members from their families.

The center also served 312 active participants
between the ages of 5 and 21 in its after-school program, plus 411 adults who
participated in the center’s economic development programs and several
community impact programs.

In its first semester, the center diminished
the number of unemployed parents from 42 percent to 25 percent of its
enrollment. A total of 52 adults participated in the center’s employability
program. 

Likewise, the center also shrank the
percentage of vulnerable families from 36 percent to 29 percent. These are
defined as families with intrafamilial situations who live in a poverty level
that keeps them from having physical and emotional security.

“This project seeks to impact two
generations: parents and their children, to break the generational poverty
cycle. These results we are presenting today show that, even though we have
been operating for a short time, the center is already bearing fruit,” said Eduardo
Carrera Morales, CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico.

Vimenti’s first semester report also
revealed that 32 percent of its students have special education needs. The
center’s personnel has strived to provide these students with the necessary
aids and resources so they can have a quality education.

These efforts include hiring a special
education teacher.

At the end of the first semester, Kinder
and first grade students reached a 39 percent general school proficiency level.
The center’s goal is to reach at least 70 percent in school proficiency.
Vimenti’s students have also received health services such as psychometric
tests plus eye exams and hearing tests. Students who needed glasses received a
pair to support their academic progress.

The center also unveiled good results in their economic development programs. In its first semester, the job program for youths and adults graduated 52 participants.

Out of that number, 21 landed a job in the
first 30 to 60 days after graduation, executives said.

“In the economic development area, we offer
two main programs and the first one focuses on adult development. It offers
five-week workshops with topics related to customer service, hospitality and
tourism,” said Bárbara Rivera, director of Vimenti.

“In the second program, which is offered as
an after-school program and focuses on entrepreneurial development in children
and youths ages 5 to 21, we have been working on a well-stocked entrepreneurial
teaching curriculum,” she said.

Since 2016, Boys & Girls Clubs of
Puerto Rico had been planning a project to design an integral services model
based on evidence that would mitigate the effects of child poverty in Puerto
Rico and promote economic security for children and their families.

That is how Vimenti was born and in the
summer of 2018,  it opened its first
center at the Ernesto Ramos Antonini housing project in San Juan. This center
works with three main programmatic areas focused on social development,
education and economic development.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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