Planning Your Child's Summer Activities Easier with United Way

United Way for Southeastern Michigan is strengthening its community investment in education with the launch of a new digital pilot — Summer Spark — to help parents and caregivers find quality summer programs all in one place. In partnership with Youth Development Resource Center (YDRC), the new digital tool allows you to search for programs by price, age or location to fit your wallet and your child’s needs.

Summer Spark was created to address learning loss — known as the summer slide — in children living in low-income communities throughout Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. For these children, the summer slide can be especially detrimental over the school break. These gaps continue to grow and by the end of fifth grade, children in these communities are nearly three grades behind in reading as compared to their peers living in more affluent communities. These challenges will also be magnified under new Michigan legislation taking effect during the 2019-20 school year, which will require students to repeat third grade if they fail to achieve reading proficiency.

Summer Spark activities will focus on sports, science and math to help ensure children are better equipped to enter the new school year prepared to learn, while increasing their health and wellness and developing academic and social-emotional skills. More than 150 programs are already featured via the Summer Spark digital tool, and United Way and YDRC plan to enhance offerings as the tool gains in popularity.

“We know that summer can be a time of great need for many families seeking to feed their children’s bodies and minds over the summer break,” says Tammie Jones, vice president, education and economic prosperity, United Way for Southeastern Michigan. “This pilot will give us great insight into where the needs are. This digital portal makes it easy for families to access resources that are already in their communities, and will also help children stay sharp all summer long.”

To shore up your child’s summer plans, visit UnitedWaySEM.org/SummerSpark to access a growing list of hundreds of age-appropriate summer programming options for your kids.