Weekly Media Roundup: June 12, 2024

Tacoma's Late Night Summer Youth Program Aims to Curb Violence, Fox 13 Seattle (Washington)

At 12 locations across Tacoma this summer, middle and high schoolers are taking part in Summer Late Nights programming held by Metro Parks Tacoma and Tacoma Public Schools. Each weeknight, teens can get a hot meal, play games, make new friends and learn new skills. “We want them to know that they are valuable, and they are an important part of our community. And participating in Summer Late Nights is an opportunity and avenue for them to find out something that they're going to be more interested in, rather than being out on the streets and potentially being put in an unsafe situation," Sheryl Blessing, youth services recreation supervisor at Metro Parks, told Fox 13 Seattle. Nearly 1,700 students participated in the pilot program last summer.

With Its $23.5 Million Project, Lowell Boys & Girls Club Wants to Help End Generational Poverty for Its Members, The Boston Globe (Massachusetts)

More than 50 years after its initial groundbreaking, the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell is undergoing significant renovations that will expand the number of students served and programs offered. For example, the new facility will include a theater, music instruction room, teaching kitchen, meditation room, and dance center, as well as a new teen center focused on workforce skills. The renovation is supported by NBA player Terance Mann, who practiced basketball on the center’s courts as a child. Mann told the Boston Globe the renovation is “an opportunity to have something new, cool, and hip. Something getting them away from video games, off their phones, and out of the house.”

Hundreds of Advocates Call on Lawmakers to Fund Central Pa. After-School Programs, Fox 43 (Pennsylvania)

Last week, afterschool students joined their teachers and school officials at Pennsylvania’s State Capitol in Harrisburg to call on lawmakers to invest in out-of-school time programs. Pennsylvania lawmakers will decide before June 30 whether to include Governor Josh Shapiro’s proposed $11.5 million for out-of-school time in the state budget. “I want more kids to have the opportunity that I had,” Jay’Len Clark-Carr, an IGNITE afterschool program participant and Afterschool Alliance Youth Afterschool Ambassador, told Fox 43. “When I was growing up there were a lot of shootings in my neighborhood but being in afterschool slowly decreased those shootings with teens.”

Op-Ed: More Funding Needed to Expand Summer Learning Programs, NJ Spotlight News (New Jersey)

The Princeton Area Community Foundation will award grants to nonprofits providing safe and enriching summer programs for the second consecutive year this summer. Last year, the funding enabled programs to operate for longer hours, provide meals and transportation, and offer diverse activities including photography, robotics, swimming and more. In a recent guest column in NJ Spotlight News, foundation leaders Sonia Delgado and Nelida Valentin note that with more funding, last year’s awardees could have served twice as many students. “As we roll out our 2024 Summer Initiative Grants, we are asking other funders, community leaders and policymakers to join us in expanding these efforts. We want to ensure that all young people in our region have access to enriching summer opportunities,” Delgado and Valentin write.