While some speak of building walls, Avenues São Paulo is all about leaping to the other side. One of the school’s most successful Community Engagement activities, LEAP, does just that. Rent-a-pro, a company dedicated to afterschool activities, partnered with Paula Castro Dance School and volunteer Avenues’ teachers to offer free classes to children across the fence, from neighboring Jardim Panorama, a socially vulnerable community where kids could really use activities to fill up the lagging hours between school and dinnertime. Classes range from judo, taekwondo, guitar, art, soccer, volleyball, and ballet to Portuguese, Math, robotics, storytelling and 3D printing. And the kids are always present in great numbers.

“I head out there as soon as I get off school, practically every day. Most kids are my age, and I’ve made new friends”, says Larah Pascoal, 11. “Before, we had nothing to do. We’d come home from school, take a shower, have dinner, and go to sleep. Now, we have activities after school, every day”. Classes have been temporarily suspended both at the community center and at the school due to social isolation measures enforced to flatten the Covid 19 contamination curve but make no mistake about it: Larah’s going back, once activities are resumed. “I miss art class.”