29 May Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Awards $100,000 Grant to YMCA of Greater Kansas City

YMCA of Greater Kansas City was recently awarded a $100,000 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to support the Y’s Summer Learning Loss Prevention program.

The primary goal of the SLLP program is to prevent summer learning loss through a combination of literacy instruction, quality enrichment activities aligned to literacy classroom instruction, and positive youth development opportunities for struggling readers and their families at a site within their local community. The program targets incoming first-fifth graders identified by the schools as “strategic readers” (reading just below grade level). The Y is working to fully embed this summer intervention at all of our 21st CCLC afterschool program sites.

This project is important because it offers specific strategies to mitigate the achievement gap in literacy which created disparities between subgroups of children in the Kansas City area, and across the nation. The 2016 Kids Count Profile published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows the achievement gap between low-income children and their more affluent peers. In Missouri, 75% of low-income fourth graders scored below proficient reading levels compared to 50% of their more affluent peers. The gap is even wider in Kansas where 80% of low-income fourth graders scored below proficient reading levels compared to 46% of their more affluent peers.  Third grade reading skills predict high school graduation. Graduation rates among students that are reading proficiently by 3rd grade are three times higher than those that do not. Children living in poverty have fewer opportunities to develop and practice literacy skills outside of the classroom. One reason is they simply do not have equal access to books. Studies have shown that in some of the lowest-income communities, there is one book per 300 children compared to 13 books per child in upper-middle income communities (Handbook of Early Literacy Research, 2006). Parents living in poverty are also more likely to lack the confidence, skills, and/or time to help instill academic self-confidence and a love of learning within their children. During the summer months, children who lack quality learning experiences tend to lose academic skills over the break. Such losses– which equate to two months of a grade level each summer—accumulate year after year. Studies compiled by YMCA of the USA (YUSA) have shown that by the end of eighth grade, summer learning loss can account for 66% of the achievement gap between low- and high-income students.

With a focus on safety, health, social growth and academic enhancement, Y Club before and after school gives kindergartners through sixth graders a safe, supportive and fun environment to learn, develop interests and make friends. Parents enjoy the convenience of a state licensed program in their child’s school, affordable weekly fees, and peace of mind knowing that qualified, trained staff are there to provide a positive atmosphere. Y Club is offered at over 85 elementary schools throughout the metro.