Partnership Seeks Proposals for Summer Programs Serving Baltimore Children

Three of Baltimore’s largest char­i­ta­ble fun­ders are team­ing up to cre­ate new sum­mer learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for city youth.

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, Fam­i­ly League of Bal­ti­more and The Har­ry and Jeanette Wein­berg Foun­da­tion are seek­ing grant pro­pos­als from local orga­ni­za­tions offer­ing sum­mer activ­i­ties and pro­grams for Bal­ti­more City youth who are dis­ad­van­taged. The orga­ni­za­tions will sup­port pro­grams that focus on such areas as read­ing, sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, engi­neer­ing or math, as well as pro­grams serv­ing chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties. The sum­mer pro­grams must be geared pri­mar­i­ly toward youth in low-income fam­i­lies liv­ing with­in the city.

The grant appli­ca­tion, which can be used to apply for funds from all three orga­ni­za­tions, and eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria are avail­able online. While each orga­ni­za­tion has spe­cif­ic cri­te­ria for fund­ing, all three share the same appli­ca­tion process and goal: ensur­ing city chil­dren and fam­i­lies can access edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties that allow youth to con­tin­ue learn­ing and grow­ing dur­ing the sum­mer months, rather than los­ing ground.

“All par­ents face the chal­lenge of find­ing sum­mer activ­i­ties for their chil­dren, but the options are par­tic­u­lar­ly lim­it­ed for many low-income fam­i­lies already strug­gling to meet basic dai­ly needs,” said Sophie Dage­nais, direc­tor of the Casey Foundation’s Bal­ti­more Civic Site. ​“By work­ing togeth­er with the Fam­i­ly League and the Wein­berg Foun­da­tion to fund the broad­est pos­si­ble range of sum­mer pro­grams, we hope to change that real­i­ty for many city fam­i­lies and cre­ate more avenues for them to fos­ter their children’s edu­ca­tion and development.”

The part­ner­ship rep­re­sents an inten­tion­al effort to cre­ate a broad­er range of qual­i­ty sum­mer learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for chil­dren in low-income fam­i­lies. Unlike their peers from high­er-income fam­i­lies, chil­dren in low-income fam­i­lies often lack access to activ­i­ties — whether through camps, libraries or even muse­ums — that keep their minds engaged over the sum­mer. As a result, they miss cru­cial learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that build on what they’ve learned dur­ing the school year. Research shows stu­dents can lose one to three months of learn­ing over the sum­mer and that kids in low­er-income fam­i­lies are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed by such aca­d­e­m­ic losses.

“We see sum­mer learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties as an inte­gral sup­port to stu­dent suc­cess and are excit­ed about the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with these part­ners to pro­vide more oppor­tu­ni­ties for youth,” said Jonathon Ron­deau, pres­i­dent and CEO of Fam­i­ly League of Bal­ti­more. ​“I want to thank the may­or for the $250,000 in funds she has chan­neled through Fam­i­ly League to invest in sum­mer pro­grams for youth.”

By sup­port­ing sum­mer pro­grams through­out the city, Casey, Fam­i­ly League and Wein­berg hope to reduce sum­mer learn­ing loss and ensure more kids have the chance to reach their full poten­tial dur­ing the sum­mer and beyond.

“The Har­ry and Jeanette Wein­berg Foun­da­tion is thrilled to part­ner with the Casey Foun­da­tion and Fam­i­ly League of Bal­ti­more to help to grow and make our sum­mer youth ini­tia­tive even more suc­cess­ful than it was last sum­mer,” said Ellen M. Heller, Wein­berg Foun­da­tion board chair. ​“Qual­i­ty out-of-school time is among the Wein­berg Foundation’s core goals with­in its U.S. Edu­ca­tion grant­mak­ing port­fo­lio. By part­ner­ing with oth­er foun­da­tions and Bal­ti­more City, and coor­di­nat­ing our process­es and resources, we know we can have an even big­ger impact this summer.”

The dead­line for appli­ca­tions is 5 p.m. Tues­day, March 10, 2015. To learn more about the sum­mer pro­gram grants and each organization’s require­ments, vis­it www​.aecf​.org/​s​u​m​m​e​r​g​rants.

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The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion cre­ates a brighter future for the nation’s chil­dren by devel­op­ing solu­tions to strength­en fam­i­lies, build paths to eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty and trans­form strug­gling com­mu­ni­ties into safer and health­i­er places to live, work and grow. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.aecf​.org.

Fam­i­ly League of Bal­ti­more devel­ops and imple­ments col­lab­o­ra­tive solu­tions to help strug­gling, hard-work­ing Bal­ti­more fam­i­lies and chil­dren achieve their dreams of a bet­ter life. Fam­i­ly League was estab­lished in 1991 as Baltimore’s Local Man­age­ment Board to man­age and deploy gov­ern­ment funds that strength­en chil­dren and fam­i­lies. The orga­ni­za­tion serves as an archi­tect of change, lever­ag­ing rela­tion­ships with pub­lic and pri­vate enti­ties, as well as con­ven­ing stake­hold­ers from local gov­ern­ment, the fund­ing com­mu­ni­ty and direct ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions to bring togeth­er finan­cial sup­port and a shared vision for edu­ca­tion and hunger that ben­e­fit the chil­dren and fam­i­lies of Bal­ti­more. For more infor­ma­tion, www​.fam​i​lyleague​.org.

The Har­ry and Jeanette Wein­berg Foun­da­tion, one of the largest pri­vate char­i­ta­ble foun­da­tions in the Unit­ed States, pro­vides approx­i­mate­ly $100 mil­lion in annu­al grants to non­prof­its that pro­vide direct ser­vices to low-income and vul­ner­a­ble indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies, pri­mar­i­ly in the U.S. and Israel. Grants are focused on meet­ing basic needs and enhanc­ing an individual’s abil­i­ty to meet those needs with empha­sis on old­er adults, the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, and our home­town com­mu­ni­ties of Mary­land, North­east­ern Penn­syl­va­nia, and Hawaii. The trustees, some of whom also serve as exec­u­tive offi­cers of the Foun­da­tion, are Donn Wein­berg, Bar­ry I. Schloss, Robert T. Kel­ly, Jr., Alvin Awaya, and Chair Ellen M. Heller. Rachel Gar­bow Mon­roe serves as the Wein­berg Foundation’s Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer. For more infor­ma­tion, please go to www​.hjwein​bergfoun​da​tion​.org.