Keeping Every Youth Safe (KEYS)

Town of Lexington & the Town of Lexington Police Department

Classroom setting with age groups divided as follows: K-2nd grades, 3rd-5th grades and 6th-8th grades.

In early 2003, the West Lexington community, along with the Lexington Police Department and the Lexington Improvement League recognized the need to provide quality after school activities to youth who may be coming home from school alone or have limited supervision between the hours of 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. These groups, along with representatives of approximately fifteen other public and non-profit organizations came together to create the Lexington Latchkey Collaborative who were instrumental in the design of the program and hiring of the first staff. During its first year of operation (2003-2004 school year), the KEYS Program served approximately fifty-five youth. Each youth received individual tutoring and mentoring, based on their needs provided by program staff and a cadre of volunteers from local churches and high schools. Additionally, Lexington Community Oriented Policing and School Resource Officers provide life skills training and the opportunity to positively react with law enforcement officials.

The results of this small community run, privately financed organization have been phenomenal. Teachers from schools where KEYS children attend classes have reported improvements in both reading and math scores. Additional successes have been reported in other classroom behaviors such as anger management, teamwork, sharing, and general health of the students.

Town of Lexington, the Town of Lexington Police Department and Harvest Hope Food Bank Kid's Cafe and Back pack programs.

Our main focus is on academic and attendance improvement. That is why homework, tutoring and mentoring are such strong components of KEYS. We also provide free time (free play and extra educational computer time), swim lessons, Mats2Men (wrestling program for males), and Music.