For working parents, the hours between the end of the school day and the end of their working day provide frequent stress. After-school sports, tutoring, dance classes and the like are often expensive. So is babysitting. Children’s Aid, a nonprofit group, offers a solution through free, high-quality after-school programs for low-income New Yorkers.

The Frederick Douglass Community Center on the Upper West Side is one of the 25 after-school educational programs run by Children’s Aid. The center serves low-income elementary and middle school students, about half of whom live in a neighboring public housing complex.

During a typical day, third graders arrive at the center by 3 p.m. and receive a half-hour of homework help in classes of about 15 students. After that, they have two structured activities, each lasting an hour. These can include a STEM class, where they might build hovercrafts out of balloons and paper plates. They also have literacy class, where they practice sounding out words, reading aloud and playing word searches to improve their vocabulary. Other activities include gym class, art class, computer lab, free time and social-emotional learning class, when teachers help students learn to process big emotions and be kind to their classmates. When parents pick their children up by 6 p.m., the center leaves free books and premade dinners by the front door for the families to take home.