About Us
Where We Started: In 1994, the City of Claremont, Claremont Unified School District, and many community volunteers created Claremont’s first Youth Master Plan. The most critical need it identified was the lack of after-school academic-support programs for struggling elementary-school students, particularly those whose families had no access to such programs for financial or other reasons.
In response, volunteers from the Pomona Valley Section of the National Council of Negro Women and from St. Ambrose Episcopal Church formed two tutoring programs, which merged in 2005 to become CLASP.
What We Do: CLASP continues to be the only nonprofit, nonsectarian organization in Claremont to offer after-school homework help to elementary students in the Claremont Unified School District. It serves approximately 140 students each year, selecting those who are in greatest need of its services.
CLASP provides these children with homework help and additional academic support along with a recreation program, enrichment activities, and healthy snacks. Sessions run two hours a day, three days a week at each of its five centers. These neighborhood-based centers include two churches, two Claremont community centers and an affordable housing complex. CLASP also offers student transportation to and from four of these centers.
Who We Are: Part-time paid staff consists of a program director, a tutor coordinator, an office assistant, five site supervisors and up to ten recreation leaders. In order to leverage our lean budget to serve the students, our program relies on more than 270 volunteer tutors, who come from the surrounding community, local colleges and high schools. Collectively, they donate more than 8,000 hours of tutoring annually. In addition, over 40 community members volunteer on the board of directors and board committees, providing vital administrative and program services.