Thursday June 21, 2012
| Media Contacts: |
Debbie Belt |
574-6587/303-6167 |
|
Rebecca DeJarnatt |
574-0854 |
Summer Youth Service Programs Awarded Funds
Mini-Grant Program Helps to Prevent Summer Learning Loss The Louisville Out-of-School Time (OST) Coordinating Council awarded $70,000 in grants to eleven community organizations to help prevent summer learning loss. Research shows that all young people experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer. Research spanning over 100 years shows that students typically score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they do on the same tests at the beginning of the summer (White, 1906; Heyns, 1978; Entwisle & Alexander 1992; Cooper, 1996; Downey et al 2004). The organizations will use the grant money for a multitude of projects this summer, all related to strengthening youth services, such as purchasing instructional materials, recruitment efforts as well as rewards and incentives for participants.
The Louisville OST Coordinating Council’s founding partners -- Louisville Metro Government, Metro United Way, and Jefferson County Public Schools -- combined resources with the Community Foundation of Louisville to provide these grants. Their work is a component of the $765,000 Wallace Foundation grant awarded to Louisville in February 2012 to implement YouthPrint, a comprehensive initiative for improving the quality and effectiveness of out-of-school resources and boosting participation by children and teenagers.
Following are the mini-grant award recipients, amounts and program names:
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One Plus One Equals U, programming at Shawnee Arts & Culture Community Center, 607 South 37th Street
o $3,000 for the Summer Youth Enrichment Program (SYEP) "Fit to Learn"
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Canaan Community Center, located at 2840 Hikes Lane
o $2,500 for the Canaan Summer Academic Enrichment Program
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Down Syndrome of Louisville, Inc., located at 5001 S. Hurstbourne Parkway, 40291
o $6,000 for the Summer Enrichment Program and Teen Summer Camp
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Family & Children's Place, programming at Meyzeek Middle School, 828 S. Jackson
o $6,000 for CLASP (Collaborative Learning After School Program)
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First Gethsemane Center for Family Development,
o $9,000 for the First Gethsemane OST Academic Enrichment Program
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Highland Park Community Development Corp., located at 3500 Shanks Lane
o $9,000 for the HELP Summer 2012 Enrichment Program
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Lighthouse Promise, Inc., located at 5312 Shepherdsville Road
o $5,000 for Summer STEAMS Up
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Louisville Youth Group, located at 417 East Broadway
o $6,650 for Spotlight on Summer Learning!
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Plymouth Community Renewal Center, located at 1626 West Chestnut Street
o $5,850 for the Summer Academic Enrichment Program
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St. Anthony Community Outreach Center, Inc. located at 2234 West Market Street
o $7,000 for the St. Anthony Summer Reading Program
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St. George Community Center, located at 1205 South 26th Street
o $10,000 for Reading Rockets
The mini-grants will support best practices to help prevent academic summer learning loss in the areas of reading and math for young people (grades K-12) participating in out-of-school time programs in the Louisville area. Agencies awarded the funding are required to track, measure and share results to share learning and best practices.
For more information, contact Rebecca DeJarnatt with Louisville Metro’s Office for Youth Development at 502.574.0854.
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