Chesterbrook Learning Center provides a safe after-school environment for kids and teenagers

Located at 22 Brookway Road, the Chesterbrook Community Center was founded in 1997 with the help of June Conway, a Waltham police officer, the Waltham Housing Authority and Bentley University. It initially served as a computer lab for the children of Chesterbrook Gardens, a state-subsidized apartment complex on Brookway Road.

“[June] was thinking of her own kids and how they were into computers, and she thought, hey, the kids of Chesterbrook deserve the same opportunities,” said Maureen Kuper, the program director.

From there, Kuper explained,  the program expanded into an after-school enrichment program, working under the Chesterbrook Community Foundation. The program offers children and teens help with homework, provides arts and crafts like cookie decorating, outdoor activities and a multitude of board games.

“[For] a lot of the kids here, this is their enrichment. So it’s fun. No matter what you do with them, they’re excited by it,” she said.

Kuper said the program tries to make some of its activities learning-oriented, incorporating STEM and reading into activities and games.

Help from other communities

After-school snacks are provided through a partnership with Food Link, a nonprofit in Arlington that helps curb food insecurity in underprivileged communities.

Academic tutoring and homework help are provided by Bentley University students through a partnership program. Kuper said around 40 students provide assistance to the program each semester.

For Kuper, it is satisfying to provide the children of the community with a safe space.

HELPIS, a Burlington-based nonprofit, donated new clothes, school supplies, and backpacks for the kids of Chesterbrook and their families.

Room to grow

Outside of the program’s current offerings, the nonprofit is looking into ways to provide even more services to kids.

According to Melissa Wolcott, the organization’s development director, the center is trying to start a trade workshop this coming fall.

“Our team aims to address a rapidly growing need to empower our local teens for post-secondary education and alternative options such as trade school training and workforce preparation,” Wolcott wrote in an email to the Waltham Times.

Wolcott explained that adequate funding would allow the center to hold multiple three-day workshops offering students hands-on exposure to different trade opportunities.

John Casassa, president of the Chesterbrook Community Foundation’s board of directors, said the center has been discussing the possibility of having employees from National Grid, a utility company, lead training workshops.

Casassa got involved with the Chesterbrook Community Center while volunteering as a Bentley student.

“I think it’s extremely rewarding to see the children grow up and to be able to provide that constant in their lives. On the board level, I think I embrace the challenge of finding ways to do that,” Casassa said.