REGION — The San Diego Foundation awarded $2 million in grants to 14 nonprofit partners, including several in North County, providing summer programming that promotes post-pandemic academic and social recovery of K–12 students.
Since launching 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.
“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 the San Diego Foundation. “These after-school and summer programs provide equitable access to expanded learning opportunities, so students thrive in school and life.”
Grant recipients providing 2023 and 2024 summer camp and leadership development experiences in North County include the following:
- A Step Beyond received $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.
- The Boys and Girls Club of Oceanside received $155,000 to provide Oceanside youth, ages 11 to 18, with full-day summertime science, technology, reading, engineering, arts and math (STREAM) programming alongside traditional enrichment, recreational and career empowerment activities.
- The Classroom of the Future Foundation received $150,000 to teach indigenous North Inland and low-income Southern San Diego County students about the use of robotics and adaptive technology, and how to use artificial intelligence (AI) tutoring to address learning loss.
- The Girls Inc. of San Diego County received $125,000 for its Eureka! Program, which is built around an intensive, five-year college access and opportunity strategy for students between 7th and 12th grades from North Central and North Inland San Diego County.
- The Media Arts Center of San Diego received $100,000 for a summer program where artists use media arts and digital literacy tools to augment English language arts and math curricula through visual storytelling for students from North Coastal and North Inland County.
- Vista Community Clinic received $160,000 to teach Vista middle schoolers about entrepreneurship basics during a 12-week summer program.
- Young Echelon received $60,000 to introduce campers from North, East and South County to the world of robotics to help them better understand the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) concepts used in modern manufacturing.
The San Diego Foundation also recently partnered with the Dr. Seuss Foundation to award $1.15 million in grants to 23 local nonprofit organizations dedicated to providing quality, affordable early childhood education, care and resources for families with children between the ages of 0 and 5.
One of those nonprofits is Palomar Family Counseling Service in partnership with Growing Minds, which received $75,000 to strengthen the capacity of early childhood education centers to offer high-quality, evidence-based preventive mental health interventions to low-income, minority children and their families.
