Programs & Services

Program Navigation

» Special Needs
» Quest 4 Greatness
» United Ministries
» Community Service Learning Program
» Growing Home Southeast

» Kids Café
» Backpack Program
» Quest 4 Technology
» Quest 4 Health

» Mayes Clubs and Raquets
» Young Marathon Runner's of America
» New Beginnings Counseling Service
» 21st Century

Special Needs

⇒Currently, there are no school aged after-school and average summer day camp programs for special needs children here in Greenville County. Our Special Needs Program began in June 2006 with only 5 children. Their disabilities ranged from autism to mental retardation. Our belief with our special needs is to provide the basic care needs. Since that time our summer camp has more than doubled its size. Summer of 2008 we served 20 special needs children and their families.

⇒Our after-school program is held year round. Pick up is 6:00 pm daily. We also offer a 9-weeksummer day camp program. The times are Monday – Friday from 7:30 am – 6:00 pm. We provide breakfast, lunch, snack, and field trips.

Quest 4 Greatness

⇒We provide an after-school program during school year. We provide a hot meal, recreational time, computer lab, academic enrichment, and tutoring.

⇒We provide an 8-week free summer day camp for youth ages 8-16. We provide transportation,breakfast, lunch, snack, academics, recreational activities, and field trips.

⇒We are a provider of Supplemental Services. This program is the result of the federal No Child Left Behind Act for Title I schools that are in their second year or later of school improvement and theirfamilies meet the income limits under the law. We provide free tutoring to students who qualify an we provide tutoring at our two locations. We provide transportation from the school to our center, a hot meal, free tutoring, and transportation from the center to the children’s homes.

⇒We are a state provider offering family planning (Teen Pregnancy Prevention services) to youth ages 10 – 19. We provide individual and group counseling sessions on medical topics from an approved curriculum from the state on HIV/AIDS, STD’s, puberty, male and female reproductive organs, etc. We provide these sessions to all youth we serve who meet the criteria.

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United Ministries

⇒United Ministries’ Learning Center has opened a new location in the Belle Meade community at Upstate Circle of Friends, formerly Sirrine Elementary School. If you’re ready to get ahead in life, and want to earn your GED close to home, take advantage of Free GED courses on a flexible schedule with one-on-one instruction. When you’re ready to take the exam, we’ll pay for it; and if you pass, you’ll earn a South Carolina High School Equivalency Diploma accepted by employers and colleges.
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Community Service Learning Program

⇒The Community Service Learning Program (CSLP) is a series of group workshops designed to encourage healthy behavior for participants in social and educational environments. It seeks to assist youth in the acquisition of valuable life skills necessary to develop the competencies and capacities of self-sustaining adults. Finally, the program provides a sense of purpose via authentic opportunities that requires participants to contribute to their communities.

⇒The Community Service Learning Program is devised of three components as follows: (1) Community Service component provides youth a sense of empowerment as they are placed in the help-giving rather than help-seeking role; (2) Classroom-based component consists primarily of group activities and discussion on topics of special interest to youth; (3) Service Learning component helps youth connect the community service experience to classroom-learning and ultimately to their lives through reflection.

⇒Saturdays 10 am – 2 pm. Lunch will be provided. Transportation provided in 29605 zip code area.

⇒Breakdown of Groups: (1) Ages 12-13; (2) Age 14; (3) Ages 15-16; (4) Ages 17-19

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Growing Home Southeast

⇒Growing Home Southeast is a family service agency committed to strengthening lives and promoting healthy communities. Our services are accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Children & Family Services (COA), and our Foster Parents receive the most up-to-date and effective training to meet the needs of youth in care.
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Kids Café

⇒Founded in 1993, Kids Café is the nation’s largest charitable meal service and nutrition education program for children. It is sponsored in the Upstate, Midlands, and Pee Dee areas of South Carolina by Harvest Hope Food Bank and is a licensed, trademarked program of Feeding America National Food Bank, which operates hundreds of sites in the Unites States.

⇒Upstate Circle of Friends is the first Kids Café/Backpack program in the upstate.

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Backpack Program

⇒The Backpack Program provides children at-risk of hunger with food to take home over the weekends and out-of-school times. Backpacks or other containers are stocked with nutritious,child-friendly, easy-to-prepare food. They are typically distributed on Fridays or the last day the children attend the site for the week.
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Quest for Technology

⇒We have a computer lab equipped with 16 computers. The computers were acquired with a grant donation through IBM and also through the Department of Juvenile Justice Teen After-School Program.

⇒Explore your options during the summer with Greenville Tech’s Hands-On-Technology and Hands-On-Health and Wellness Camp. Get a taste of several industrial career fields that correspond to students’ career clusters.

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Quest for Health

“Partnering with the Upstate Circle of Friends has increased our exposure to the community. Through them we are able to collaborate with other organizations, thereby increasing the community’s awareness of many healthcare issues.” Melissa Black, MSN, RN, FNP Assistant Professor of Nursing, Greenville Technical College
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Mayes Clubs and Raquets

Mayes Clubs & Racquets is committed to expanding opportunities to educate youth through educational, recreational and social programming focusing on building youths knowledge of golf and tennis.
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Young Maraton Runner's of America

Young Marathon Runner’s of America is designed to produce a culture shift towards health & wellness living. Our strategies will focus on obesity prevention (ages 12 to17), increased awareness, and youth advocacy.
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New Beginnings Counseling Service

This organization will offer group and individual counseling. Anger Managements group will beable enhance their life and teach coping skills and alternative to become more law abiding and teach the participants how to focus and in control all the while making our community a safer andpeaceful place to live.
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21st Century Community Learning Centers Program

A community-learning center offers academic, artistic, and cultural enrichment opportunities to students and their families when school is not in session (before school, after school, during holidays, and/or during the summer recess).

Purpose

Authorized under Title IV, Part B, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the law's specific purposes are to:

Provide opportunities for academic enrichment, including providing tutorial services to help students, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools, to meet State and local student performance standards in core academic subjects, such as reading and mathematics;
Offer students a broad array of additional services, programs, and activities, such as youth development activities, drug and violence prevention programs, counseling programs, art, music, and recreation programs, technology education programs, and character education programs, that are designed to reinforce and complement the regular academic program of participating students; and
Offer families of students served by community learning centers opportunities for literacy and related educational development.

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