San Diego Foundation grants $2 million to help learning and social recovery

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – San Diego Foundation awarded $2 million in grants to 14 nonprofit partners with the intent of providing summer programming promoting post-pandemic academic and social recovery of students in the county, it was announced Thursday.

“Recent studies reflect greater learning loss than originally estimated for students compared to pre-pandemic levels, especially for those furthest from opportunity,” said Mark Stuart, president and CEO of San Diego Foundation. “These after-school and summer programs provide equitable access to expanded learning opportunities, so students thrive in school and life.”

Since it launched its Expanded Learning programs in 2021, the foundation has awarded more than $31 million in grants to 176 nonprofit partners, serving more than 50,000 students throughout San Diego County.

Grant recipients and their stated goals include:

• A Step Beyond: $100,000 to halt summer learning loss, build academic skills and confidence and support wellness and development of relationships with peers and staff in North Inland San Diego County;
• Boys and Girls Club of Oceanside: $155,000 to provide Oceanside youth, ages 11-18, with full-day summertime science, technology, reading, engineering, arts and math programming, alongside traditional enrichment, recreational and career empowerment activities;
• Center on Policy Initiatives: $150,000 for its Community Leadership for Community Schools project that trains and empowers students and parents to advocate for themselves and their communities;
• Classroom of the Future Foundation: $150,000 to teach indigenous North Inland and low-income Southern San Diego County students about the use of robotics and adaptive technology, and to use artificial intelligence tutoring to address learning loss;
• Fleet Science Center: $135,000 for its STEAM2You Summer Camp where campers from South San Diego County engage in project-based science investigations that foster creative thinking and problem-solving skills;
• Girls Inc. of San Diego County: $125,000 for its Eureka! Program that is built around an intensive five-year college access and opportunity strategy for seventh to 12th graders from North Central and North Inland San Diego County;
• Media Arts Center San Diego: $100,000 for a summer program where teaching artists use media arts and digital literacy tools to augment English Language Arts and math curriculum through visual storytelling for students from North Coastal and North Inland San Diego County;
• Monarch School Project: $163,000 to serve 300 unhoused students over the summer, providing a safe place to be, an opportunity to engage in valuable enrichment opportunities and continue their critical academic progress;
• Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center: $165,000 to provide four weeks of full-day educational programming for National City and South San Diego third through sixth graders focusing on environmental and climate science, garden and nutrition education, art and creative design;
• San Diego Community College District Auxiliary Organization: $150,000 in support of Tutor-to-Teacher, a dual enrollment program that offers high school students from underrepresented communities college-level instruction and supports the formation of professional self-identity as emerging teachers;
• San Diego Youth Symphony: $145,000 to provide Chula Vista Elementary School District students with three-week, multi-level comprehensive music camps;
• SAY San Diego: $150,000 for leadership development and advocacy training for school and health equity with young people and their parents;
• Vista Community Clinic: $160,000 to teach Vista middle schoolers about entrepreneurship basics during a 12-week summer program embedded within VCC REACH programs;
• Young Echelon: $60,000 to introduce campers from North, East and South San Diego County to the world of robotics to help them better understand the science, technology, engineering and mathematics concepts used in modern manufacturing; and
• Youth Empowerment: $125,000 for a leadership development program focused on bringing the voices of youth from communities most in need in San Diego into advocacy efforts that support effective expanded learning programming that benefits youth, families and the larger San Diego community.

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