To the Moon is an out-of-school Arts and Education program which is operated out of Erie Elementary Charter School and funded by the City of Chicago, providing a safe and nurturing environment for children and youth in need, at no cost to families. Participants engage with art, peers, social supports, and receive healthy meals, school tutoring, and community enrichment programming.

Most parents who have students participating in To the Moon program have only recently returned to work and have reported that the program is enormous support for their family. Parents have shown great interest in the program with many now actively involved with classes such as art, yoga, and dance. Incorporating activities that include the entire family has been a positive experience that adds to the value and impact of the program. Future plans include the expansion of the program to schools so that others will be able to benefit from the positive impact of dynamic programming for students.

In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, To the Moon adopted new means of communicating and providing services to the students and their parents. The use of technology has amplified creativity which has allowed us the privilege of providing uninterrupted services to the students and families. For example, students learned how to create their own cellphone app and produced their own content such as music and pictures. The students also created graphics and visual concepts as they learned about graphic design. These types of activities are assisting students in developing new technical skills that will benefit them now and in the future. In fact, the exposure to technology has ignited the curiosity and passion of students, and has set the stage for their future aspirations to delve even deeper into the world of technology.

We are very proud to share this achievement from one of To the Moon program participants, Jeremy!

Jeremy – a talented and young Youtuber –  shared with us one of his most recent creations. It was simply amazing! We are very proud to see the influence our program and art tutoring have on our students’ lives. Jeremy saved all of the artwork he created during our after-school program to use as a one-of-a-kind gift.