The Newark Public Library has received a $101,230 grant from the Lucent Technologies Foundation to enhance and expand the benefits of Club Success, the library’s popular after-school homework assistance program. The funds will be directed to the “Club Success Initiatives,” a series of computer-based educational “first-steps” for Newark’s students and their parents, teachers and caregivers.

Lucent Technologies Foundation, the charitable arm of Lucent Technologies headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., bestowed grants totaling more than $1.6 million to eighteen Newark-based organizations. The grants were for programs designed to prepare better young people to meet the challenges of a changing global society.

“Your program was among the best we received from the more than ninety worthwhile proposals,” was the praise from David S. Ford, President of the Lucent Technologies Foundation. “We congratulate The Newark Public Library on being one of eighteen Newark grant recipients.”

Library Director Dr. Alex Boyd, upon learning of the award, commented, “This will bring a new dimension to our Club Success program: encouragement of independent lifelong learning.” Boyd further noted, “We will be able to build on an extremely successful after-school program established with the support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Newark Public Schools.”

The library’s award came under the Lucent Foundation category know as “Academics Plus”—an initiative that supports school- and community-based partnerships that encourage high academic achievement in the areas of science and math studies, as well as college preparedness. The grants are part of the Lucent Foundation’s overall efforts to improve academic performance and provide employment and career opportunities for Newark’s youth.

The library’s Club Success Initiatives include:

• Family Day

• TechEd Institute

• Technology Resources

• Science and Math Resources

Club Success Family Day will be a system-wide recruitment and open house for young people and their families. This event will foster parent-community involvement in the library’s homework assistance endeavors.

The TechEd Institute will enhance Newark teachers’ library research and Internet searching skills so that they can help Club Success students effectively use electronic information resources in their school work.

A critical need of Club Success is adequate access to computer workstations during after-school hours. All Newark Public Library agencies are wired and equipped with computers for young people—but there exists a need to add more workstations to meet increasing demand. Additional Technology Resources will provide access to the Internet and be equipped to run the Science and Math Resources that will be purchased with grant funds.

For more information about the library’s Club Success program and the Club Success Initiatives, please consult a children’s librarian at any Newark Public Library facility, or log on to the library’s home page (www.npl.org), or call Michele Cappetta, the library’s youth services coordinator, at 733-5642.