Heads Up

Heads Up helps young people from elementary school to college develop the skills, confidence, and relationships to succeed in school and to pursue lives that help further social change. We accomplish this in two ways:

- We provide extra academic support, instruction, and mentoring to children in low-income communities. Heads Up gives children extra time and individualized support by extending the days and calendars of traditional public schools with a well-rounded combination of academic and enrichment activities. In focused small group settings, children in Heads Up become better readers and more engaged students with an expanded awareness of higher education.

- We provide service, learning, and employment opportunities for university students who serve as Heads Up tutors and mentors. By combining intense, sustained service experiences with proper training and reflection, we foster a generation of leaders with a better understanding of high-poverty neighborhoods and a commitment to strengthening their communities.

Heads Up currently works with six D.C. neighborhoods and public schools in which over 500 elementary students participate in after-school tutoring, mentoring, and summer learning programs and 200 undergraduates participate as tutors, instructors, and mentors. Heads Up is now the largest private, non-profit provider of after-school programs in DC Public Schools and the largest part-time AmeriCorps program in the city.