The Summer Adventures in Learning, or SAIL, received $2,500 from the Vector Wealth Strategies Community Impact Fund in November 2016.
The SAIL program is a result of a partnership between the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville and The Schools Foundation among many other organizations. The mission of the program is to address the issue of summer learning loss, to prevent students from falling behind during the summer.
Melissa Thompson, vice president of operations for the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville, said the program bridges learning and achievement gaps for students regardless of a family’s income. “In addition to providing a safe place for students while their parents are at work, SAIL also provides hands-on learning opportunities that give at-risk students a head start when they return to school in the fall,” she said.
At the conclusion of the summer program, SAIL coordinators announced that students in three of its summer 2017 programs gained an average of two months in reading skills and one month in math skills. The results actually placed students at a three to five month advantage since many of them would have experienced a two to three month decline in their reading and math skills during a typical summer without the SAIL program. The Community Foundation plans to expand to a fourth program in summer 2018.
Learn more about SAIL at http://communityfoundationhsv.org/impact/sail.