Corbin after-school program receives award, $10,000 prize

Karen West, left, executive director of Redhound Enrichment, accepts the Dollar General Afterschool Literacy Award from Lindsey Sublett, community initiatives administrator with Dollar General Corporation at the National AfterSchool Association’s annual convention in Orlando, Fla.
Photo submitted, March 20, 2016

Corbin Independent Schools’ Redhound Enrichment after-school program has received the Dollar General Afterschool Literacy Award for its excellence in providing year-round literacy support to improve the reading, writing and critical thinking skills of its students.

The Afterschool Alliance presented the award, which includes a $10,000 prize, to Karen West, executive director of Redhound Enrichment and curriculum supervisor for Corbin schools, earlier this month at the National AfterSchool Association’s annual convention in Orlando, Fla.

West said Redhound Enrichment will use the funds for professional development and literacy instruction for its staff. The program, which began in 1991, has grown from serving 100 students at one site to serving more than 1,300 students at three sites. It provides daily tutoring, academic reinforcement and enrichment opportunities for K-12 students each day.

The after-school program has a strong relationship with the Corbin school district and builds on school-day lessons with a project-based learning model that supplements but does not replicate the school day.

Redhound Enrichment is featured in an Afterschool Alliance Issue Brief on the ways after-school programs benefit students, from elementary school through high school.