Author: School's Out Washington

How we celebrated Summer Learning Day

By School's Out Washington

In honor of National Summer Learning Day, a team of SOWA staff joined State Representative Shelley Kloba from the 1st District, Megan McJennett from King County, and Ken Nsimbi from King County Housing Authority (KCHA) on July 12 to visit Best Starts for Kids-funded programs in action at Southwest Youth and Family Services’ (SWYFS) New Futures program.  One of hundreds of celebrations across the country, we saw firsthand the positive impact of high-quality summer learning in engaging youth in building new skills, discovering passions, and connecting with caring adults. Our team of visitors observed some incredible activities run by Place-Based Collaborative partners SWYFS, Geeking Out Kids of Color (GOKiC), and Arts … [ ]

Spokane’s YMCA Program at Meadow Ridge embraces new quality practices

Located just north of Spokane, the community of Mead is home to Meadow Ridge Elementary School where the YMCA of the Inland Northwest provides licensed school-age care before and after school for children in kindergarten through 6th grade. Earlier in the school year, the program underwent a transformative 10-week intensive quality improvement process. Already experiencing major transitions with moving their program to a new location in the school and bringing on new staff, at first, the prospect of being involved in a quality improvement intervention was met with uncertainty.  Now several months later, the team working on the program at Meadow Ridge has fully embraced and incorporated many elements of the quality supports and have seen … [ ]

Skagit Community Embraces Summer Learning Program

By School's Out Washington

If you had gone to the campus of Mount Vernon’s Skagit Valley College in the first weeks of summer, you would have seen that even though school was over, the learning was not. When SOWA visited on July 18th, we came upon a cacophonous room full of school-age children banging on drums while a smiling teaching artist in the center helped them keep the beat. In another room, the middle- and high-school-aged students were in the middle of a STEM activity, learning about the environment and engineering by building model structures with ‘green roofs’ that absorb rainwater into growing plants … [ ]