Celebrating the Arts.

CAFE Kids is a comprehensive after school experience, founded on dance, drama, and music. Building on the unique vitality and cultural life of Roanoke’s Northwest community, CAFE strives to be a beacon for lifelong learning for those in Northwest and throughout the Roanoke Valley.

CAFE Kids after school program presents a unique opportunity to enrich a student’s academic achievement in a way that is fun and engaging. CAFE capitalizes on this through a strategic design that incorporates the arts as a fundamental approach to academic remediation.

Students participate in workshops that serve to nurture drama, music, dance, and poetry skills while enhancing performance on the Virginia Standards of Learning. This synchronization of fun and education serves to “edutain” (educate and entertain) students, increasing academic competency as well as social and life skills in a challenging and engaging environment.

Project-based learning is modeled on the “Odyssey of the Mind” curriculum, which challenges youth to complete multiple projects per year utilizing science, technology, and creative problem-solving skills.

Tutoring is offered in individual- and group-formats and focuses on participants’ academic needs. On Fridays, youth engage in arts activities, which include dance, theater, visual arts, and participation in CAFE’s steel drum-based Caribbean Steel Orchestra. CAFE views the arts as complementary to academics, because the arts foster critical-thinking skills, develop higher-order thinking, and deepen the desire to learn.