Join us for the Summer Care Week of Action

This week, the Afterschool Alliance is partnering with the Center for American Progress, Child Care Aware, Every Child Matters, and many other youth-serving organizations for the Summer Care Week of Action! From June 11 to 15, parents, educators, advocates, and policymakers are invited to highlight the challenges faced by families in the summer when school is out and summer programs are unaffordable, hard to find, or have schedules that don’t match working families’ needs.

We want you to participate! There are two simple ways to celebrate the importance of summer learning programs — and to help expand these opportunities for every family, regardless of zip code.

Join us on social media

Mark your calendar for the #SummerCare Twitter Storm on Wednesday, June 13 from 3 to 4 p.m. ET. To get the conversation started, we’ve got a few tweets ready to go:

• Over the summer, students lose math and reading skills they have gained over the school year. Summer learning programs mitigate the effects of summer slide, and help teachers start the school year off running! https://bit.ly/1R1Tb8N  #SummerCare
• Summer learning programs are supported by teachers & parents. These programs help prepare students to succeed in school, and life, by providing valuable enrichment opportunities and helping prevent summer slide. https://bit.ly/1R1Tb8N #SummerCare
• There are not enough summer learning programs to meet the needs of kids & families. We need increased investment in afterschool and summer learning programs. https://bit.ly/1R1Tb8N #SummerCare

Find more tweets from our partner organizations, messaging guidelines, resources to help you make the case, and plenty of graphics on the #SummerCare Week of Action toolkit.

Tell your story

Publish any new research, an op-ed, blog, or Letter to the Editor about summer care and summer learning during the week of June 11 — and be sure to promote it on social media using the #SummerCare hashtag.

Need inspiration? Check out “Families Can Expect To Pay 20 Percent of Income on Summer Child Care” recently published by the Center for American Progress.

We'll be watching the #SummerCare hashtag closely this week. Feel free to tag @afterschool4all to make sure we'll see your posts! Thank you to all the out-of-school-time and summer learning programs who help students keep up their learning momentum all year round — and connect them to fun summer activities, too.