How DC is helping local organizations fund summer programming

More than three dozen D.C. organizations have received grant funding to support summer programming for over 2,900 students, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said Tuesday.

Bowser and Paul Kihn, the city’s deputy mayor for education, said in a news release that $3.6 million in grant funding was issued from the Office of Out of School Time Grants and Youth Outcomes. The 42 nonprofit organizations were selected based on strength of program proposals and their demonstrated ability to meet community needs, according to a news release.

Each nonprofit will receive up to $150,000 to support its summer programming. Programs run from June to August, and include things like dance, arts and culture, sports and recreation, in addition to academic enrichment.

“We know that high-quality summer programs are critical to boosting overall academic performance, providing important social and emotional development opportunities, and preventing summer learning loss,” Kihn said in a statement.

Andrew Blickle, institutional marketing manager at Life Pieces to Masterpieces, said this marks the third year the group has received funding as part of the Summer Strong Grant Competition. The funding the organization has received has increased each of the last three years, he said.

The group calls its summer initiative “Connecting Communities Across The Globe.”

For six weeks, students participate in a five-day-a-week, full-day summer camp. This summer, students voted on Morocco to study, “so we’ll have food trips where they’ll get to eat Moroccan food, they’ll be learning all about soccer, and watching some Women’s World Cup games that the Moroccan national team is featured in,” Blickle said.

The summer programming “just gives them an opportunity to really experience the joys of athletics and arts, while also practicing academics,” he said.

The organization arranges for students to be picked up and dropped off at home daily. The free program also includes breakfast and lunch for all students.

Blickle said the organization is expecting 90 students to participate this summer.

“When I talked to some of our older guys who grew up in the program, the summer is really where so many of those incredible memories are made. We just have that flexibility for field trips. In our six weeks, we’re going to go on 11 different field trips, six of which are academic focused or focused on Morocco, or cultural learning. The other five are just celebration field trips, and they’ll have the opportunity to go bowling, and we haven’t planned all of those out yet, but in previous years, we’ve gone to theme parks.”

Other organizations receiving the grant funding include: