Programs · After-school
The three hours between the bell and dinner.
The flagship. Five days a week, 3:15 to 6:00, six sites, one snack, two vans, and a hard stop at 6:00 so staff can go home.
- Days
- Mon–Fri
- Hours
- 3:15–6:00
- Sites
- 6
- Cost
- $0
This is the thing we actually do. Everything else — the summer camp, the Saturday labs, this website — is scaffolding around five afternoons a week at six sites.
A day
| Time | Block | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 3:15 | Doors, snack, check-in | Fruit, something warm, water. Every kid eats, whether or not they are hungry. |
| 3:45 | Block one | The kid's first program. Same group, same room, same adult, all term. |
| 4:45 | Nothing | Ten minutes of quiet in the Void or a quiet corner. Optional, always. |
| 5:00 | Block two or open studio | Second program, homework table, salon chair, repair bench, or free build. |
| 5:45 | Cleanup | Everybody cleans their own bench plus one shared thing. |
| 6:00 | Pickup / van | Two vans run the St. Johns and Lents loops. Late pickup happens; call us. |
Enrollment patterns
Kids come two, three, or five afternoons a week. Two is the minimum to hold a seat. Five is the most common choice among families who can get here, which tells you what you need to know about the demand and the transportation problem.
Snack
Snack is a real meal, not a bag of pretzels: a fruit, a protein, a vegetable when the kitchen can get one cheap, and water. It costs us $2.14 per kid per day. Families do not pay. Kids with allergies get a labeled alternative that is kept separately, and the kitchen lead posts every label in the staff room. We are a nut-free program.
Transportation
Transportation is the number-one reason kids stop coming, so we treat it as a program cost. Two vans run loops from four partner schools to the Hawthorne, Cully, Lents, and St. Johns sites. Any kid who needs a TriMet pass gets one, no questions. Parents can also authorize a kid to walk home alone; about 40% do.
Who it is for
Grades 4 through 8, ages 9 to 14, any kid who can get to a site. No test, no audition, no minimum grade, no referral required. We do ask that a kid wants to be here — we have a short conversation with every kid at enrollment, and if they are being enrolled entirely against their will we will say so, gently, to the parent. It rarely changes the outcome but it starts things honestly.
Pick two. Stay eleven weeks. Show somebody.
Every program runs one afternoon a week for a full term. Kids choose two, and we do not shuffle them around like a tasting menu.