The Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence has been awarded a $225,000 grant to expand academic support for students at three of its elementary school sites.

The grant aims to improve academic performance in core subjects, specifically reading and math, by providing students with academic support outside of school. The grant will go toward the club’s programs at Hillcrest, Kennedy and Woodlawn elementary schools, and can be renewed for more than $1,000,000 over the next five years.

“This will allow us to do more one-on-one (tutoring) support than what we usually are able to do with our current staffing model,” said Colby Wilson, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence.

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which has been a longtime supporter of programming at the club, awarded the grant. The new funding will be available to the program beginning Friday.

In addition to being able to pay for more staffing at the three sites, Wilson said, the grant will be used to improve the activities available during the club’s “power hour,” a period directly after school when students can either get help with homework or participate in learning games or activities.

“There will be other science, technology, engineering and math programs — curriculum supplies that we can add to our program to enhance the core academic piece of power hour and the homework help,” Wilson said.

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers provide federally funded grants to support academic programs outside of the regular school day for students who attend high-poverty or low-achieving schools. To qualify for the funds, a program must serve students who attend schools where at least 40 percent of the population qualify for the free or reduced-price lunch program.

The grant also provides support for various nonacademic activities, such as cooking, exercise, community service, and drug and alcohol prevention programming. Wilson said extracurricular activities as well as education about healthy behavior are a core component of a quality after-school program.

“All those things go into kids being engaged after school and help them do better during the school day,” Wilson said.

The Boys & Girls Club operates in partnership with the Lawrence school district and provides after-school programing at all 14 elementary schools in the district. The club has begun the process of building a new teen center to expand its programming for secondary students.

The club’s grant status will be reevaluated every year and has the potential to be renewed over the next five years for a total of $1,080,000.