About THRIVE Program

Frederick Douglass once said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” We at the Burma Center also believe that is far more effective and fruitful to do everything in our power to give our children the kind of start and the kind of future they deserve. That is why we developed our youth program THRIVE, which stands for thoughtful, healthy, robust, individuals with vision and education. The program aims to help young people recognize their worth and provide social, emotional, and academic support to reach their full potential and lead a successful life.

As first-generation immigrants, language barriers, cultural differences, and lack of experience often prevent our Burmese families from providing social emotional, and academic supports to our children. The need for additional academic and technological support for youth became even more significant when the schools moved to virtual instruction because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Technological illiteracy further hinders our Burmese parents from feeling confident and competent to ensure that their children are learning and completing school assignments.

In order to meet this need, in 2020-2021 the Burma Center expanded our THRIVE program, which was originally intended for middle school and high school students, to K-12 students. We provided virtual tutoring support to our children by contracting college students. We had 42 students register for our fall program and a few students on the waitlist. With community and funder support, we were able to continue this program to provide service to 72 students for the winter semester.