Record Number of Students Served in 2019 through City Programming
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
PROVIDENCE, RI— Over the past few weeks, Mayor Jorge O. Elorza and City Departments have announced requests for proposals for youth-serving organizations interested in supporting the City’s annual work to combat summer learning loss and provide robust summer programming for Providence youth. This effort, first launched in 2015 by Mayor Elorza, has grown to offer over 1,600 educational and employment opportunities across the city this past summer. In FY20, the City funded $1 million in robust summer learning programs and $1.3 million in local summer employment opportunities, prioritizing high-quality, need-based programming. Organizations interested in providing summer learning opportunities should apply by February 18. Those interested in providing summer employment opportunities should apply by February 3.
“Every investment made in our youth is an investment in the long-term success of our community,” said Mayor Jorge Elorza. “By providing robust summer learning and employment opportunities, we are ensuring our students succeed in the classroom and beyond. We’ve seen the tremendous impact these cradle-to-career supports have had on our Providence families and I look forward to once again working with our providers to ensure accessible, high-quality learning and employment opportunities are available for our youngest residents.”
In the fall of 2015, Mayor Elorza formed a Summer Learning Task Force comprised of local leaders in education and youth development to craft a strategic and focused response to the challenge of summer learning loss among Providence students. The Task Force appointees highlighted a critical need for alignment of common standards and metrics across summer programs. The City, based on the Task Force’s recommendations and research developed programming guidelines and reporting criteria to help students achieve academic success and social-emotional growth. This past year, the City continued to expand upon this work and saw its highest level of enrollment with over 900 Providence students (pre-k through high school) engaged in programs focused on early literacy, literacy, and mathematics. Partners created immersive experiences that mitigated learning loss while supporting multilingual students and students with IEPs. Overall, the majority of students within the programs saw high attendance and sustained learning across subject areas.
Mayor Elorza has made a clear commitment to providing these learning supports for Providence students and in alignment with that goal, invested $1.3 million in the One Providence for Youth Summer Employment program in FY20. With increased investment, the program has been able to expand employment and internship opportunities from 500 placements in 2016 to over 730 summer and yearlong placements in 2019 that provided rigorous work experiences and complemented in-classroom learning. Through the program, students gained real-life work experiences, critical skills in problem-solving and a professional network that will prepare them for success in their future careers or higher education.
Through this competitive application process, the City will be engaging several high-quality summer learning programs and summer employment partners/programs open to Providence Public School students for free this summer. All youth-serving organizations interested in being a part of this year’s summer learning programs should apply by February 18 and those interested in hosting a summer employment opportunity should apply by February 3. Applications for Providence students interested in enrolling in these opportunities will open in April and will be announced as part of the City’s Eat, Play, Learn PVD initiative.