Weekly Media Roundup: June 2, 2021

GA Boys & Girls Clubs Awarded $15M Grant, WALB-TV (Georgia)

Thanks to a $15 million grant from the Georgia Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Georgia will be able to provide critical educational and social support to 9,000 youth across the state. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Georgia have done a remarkable job of serving the needs of youth across the Peach State,” Georgia Governor Brian Kemp told WALB-TV. “With this GEER funding, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Georgia will be able to further enhance student academic achievement by addressing educational gaps caused by the pandemic.” The funding will provide financial support to summer camps, afterschool programs and holiday camps at 141 Boys & Girls Clubs sites in Georgia.

Many Children Lack Access to Summer Programs in Allegheny County, Study Says, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)

A household survey commissioned by the Afterschool Alliance found that in 2019, nearly 35,000 students in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania who would have been in a summer program could not access one. Parents cited cost and lack of transportation as primary barriers to enrolling their children in summer programs. This summer, many districts and community partners are working to make summer learning opportunities more accessible to help students recover from the pandemic. More needs to be done to provide all families access to programs, said Tanya Baronti, acting director of Allegheny Partners for Out-of-School Time, part of the United Way of Southwestern PA. “We intend to bring the community together to make these vitally important programs available to all children and youth in Allegheny County this summer. Students need summer programs to recover, re-engage, interact with peers and mentors, address learning loss and re-discover their love of learning.”

NY Life Foundation Awards $1.5 Million to Out-of-School Time Programs, Philanthropy News Digest

As part of the Aim High initiative, the New York Life Foundation and the Afterschool Alliance awarded $1.5 million in grants to out-of-school time (OST) programs serving underserved middle schoolers. “Ongoing incidents of racial injustice have highlighted persistent inequities in our society,” Marlyn Torres, a senior program officer at the New York Life Foundation, told Philanthropy News Digest. “In an effort to support young people and to build on the foundation’s history of supporting organizations that address racial injustice, this year’s capacity-building Aim High grant focuses on funding out-of-school time programs that are at the forefront of this work.” This year’s recipients include Boston Debate League, East Cleveland Neighborhood Center, Los Angeles Music and Art School, After-School All-Stars Tampa Bay, Chicago Youth Programs and the Dance Institute of Washington.

San Diego Unified’s Summer School Will Be Bigger Than Ever, The San Diego Union-Tribune (California)

At least 25,000 San Diego Unified students have signed up for the district’s summer learning programs, which are free to all students this summer thanks to federal COVID-19 relief funds. To engage students, the district is partnering with a wide variety of nonprofits and community organizations to offer enrichment activities ranging from circus arts to surfing to science projects. District leaders plan to continue these partnerships to offer afterschool programming in the coming school year. “We know that this should not just be a summer program,” San Diego Unified School Board President Richard Barrera told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We are ready to make that investment as a school district.”