This fall Loyal Heights Community Center will launch a pilot program called L.E.A.F., after school enhancement classes aimed at “tweeners,” also known as middle school students between the ages of 9 and 14 years old.

Sean O’Feery, creator and director of L.E.A.F. and current child care director at Ballard Community Center, said it’s not your average after school care program.

He started the curriculum for L.E.A.F. about a year and a half ago and had been working with the Associated Recreation Council (ARC) and city affiliates.

“It takes a little bit to get a new program started,” he said. “ First of all, it has to be clearly identified and clearly draws borders around it as what it is and is not going to be. (The Seattle Parks Department) is very particular about not making an identical program with a different name, so we had to differentiate this from our child care program.”

L.E.A.F. stands for Learning, Enrichment, Active, Fitness.

“It is an opportunity for middle school aged kids and even late elementary school age kids to come in and have a bit more independence which is what a lot of these kids are looking for," O’Feery said.

The L.E.A.F class schedule would begin with Grub Club from 3 to 4 p.m. when kids will come in for a snack before classes and tutoring scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m.

“Ideally what we’d like to do is get somebody hired to resource food,” O’Feery said. “We’re looking to make more relationships with local vendors and farmers so that the Grub Club is more than just a granola bar and juice. Our intent is to have somebody who is motivated and inspired by cooking for kids and recognizes that food is love and for an age group like that they’ll just keep eating.”

Following Grub Club, students will register each quarter and choose classes based on their interest.

Classes include Spanish, sports training, visual art/design, swim van, jewelry making, basketball and volleyball skills, cooking, earth core, and chess club.

“They can choose any activity on any day,” O’Feery said. “One of the things that is nice about this program is that it’s really flexible.”

O’Feery said the classes are also great for parents to use as a daily understanding and good sense of where their kids are and what they’re doing.

From 5 to 6 p.m. kids then have an opportunity to receive tutoring from the tutoring coordinator and a number of volunteers.

“Our tutoring classes are $50 a quarter, which is 14 visits for a full quarter,” O’Feery said. “It’s the least expensive of all the classes and it’s intended to be that way based upon it being run by volunteers and the affordability of families in the neighborhood.”

O'Feery based the L.E.A.F. curriculum on three of five points Parks Superintendent Timothy Gallagher outlined in the department's agenda: environmental ethics, intergenerational programming and fitness.

Unlike most after school programs, L.E.A.F. allows kids to sign themselves in and out and it is not mandatory for them to stay during the full three hours.

“First and foremost I’m excited about this because I’ve been working at the Ballard Community Center now for four years in the Before and After school teen programs and this is an opportunity for me to make a contribution to Ballard and Loyal Heights communities,” O’Feery said. “Personally having a handful of kids when they were in Kindergarten and now in fifth grade, it’s the idea of how can I keep them around.”

If proven successful this coming year, O’Feery said L.E.A.F. will have the opportunity to expand program to other community centers around Seattle.

“With the age range 9 to 14 there is not another class quite like this,” O’Feery said. “It doesn't fit under child care because students have a choice to come and go independently. We want to get some kids in here and the way we’re positioned in this neighborhood, Whitman, Salmon Bay, St. John, St. Alphonsus, we’re right in the middle of a residential neighborhood.”

For more information call 684-4052 or pick up a brochure for a schedule of L.E.A.F. classes this fall at 2101 N.W. 77th St.