About BLSSD210

[Tech Kids] is an educational program offered to children aged 5-18 and young adults aged 19-26. They will get the opportunity to develop their ICT skills, especially their mastery of coding, robotics, and 3-D printing. These classes will be conducted after their sports classes/basketball games. We hope to bridge the gap in the digital divide by educating more children about promising careers in the technology industry. 

[Helping Hands] is a support program dedicated to single parents with kids with special needs. It aims to provide parenting seminars, mental health and counseling sessions, and solid community support that will ease the difficulty of raising children with different needs. 

More than three million children in the United States have a disability, accounting for around 4.3 percent of the population under the age of 18. Because they lack access to prenatal and other health care, they can't afford the additional expenditures of caring for a kid with disabilities.  Families of color and those living in poverty are greatly affected by this concern. About 6.9% of children living in poverty have a disability, compared to 3.8 percent of children living in poverty.

Parents with disabilities face many challenges and can benefit from support and assistance. Helping hands hopes to ease the burden of single parents with kids who have special needs through conducting a monthly parenting workshop that will help the parents to know how to better support their children while growing up. We will invite experts on parenting or members of the community who are willing to share their stories.

The program will also facilitate a support group and community where single parents will be able to share their experiences, advice, and conversations, along with access to research and training resources to help address the issues they face and experiences of discrimination and disparities. An online community will also be available, especially for those who are not able to go on-site for face-to-face sessions.

They will also be given time for mental health and counseling support through directed support groups that will be facilitated by a volunteer mental health professional. The parents have the option to let their family or relatives babysit their kids while they participate in the support sessions. However, if they have no one to assist them, a pool of volunteers will also be available to babysit their kids provided they are trained to handle kids with special needs.