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St. Stephen's Youth Programs

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Thursday Jul 21, 2016

Transforming Communities, One Young Person At A Time

Create the Future! B-SAFE has launched
In this five-week, full-day academic and enrichment program, we are engaging 500+ elementary and middle-school youth in eleven programs in six neighborhoods. We're also employing 160 teens this summer; an additional 10 teens are serving as volunteers. And we are "Creating the Future," our theme for this year and a quote from our hero of the summer, Mae Jemison, an American physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.

Each of our sites includes hands-on academic programs in reading, writing and math; visual and performing art workshops; science activities; fun with fitness; and weekly field trips. With the help of many partners and volunteers, we serve a healthy breakfast and lunch each day, along with an end-of-day snack.

Not Just a Summer Program
But B-SAFE isn't just another "summer program." B-SAFE is a direct response to a two-part challenge for our kids and their families: the lack of affordable child care plus the "summer slide," or the loss of critical math and reading skills over the long summer break.

Keeping our learners on track over the summer...
According to a recent New York Times article titled "The Families That Can't Afford Summer," most kids lose math skills over the summer, but kids from low-income families "also lose, on average, more than two months of reading skills -- and they don't gain them back. That puts them nearly three years behind higher income peers by the end of the fifth grade, and the gap keeps getting wider." In fact, the article points out, "researchers credit the summer slide for about half of the overall difference in academic achievement between lower and higher income students."

B-SAFE 17th Anniversary Celebration
Friday, July 22ndfrom 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Larz Anderson Park (Goddard Ave entrance), Brookline, MA 02245
Join us for lunch, field games, magic show, live animals, ice cream, and more!

For information on these and other events, please contactariel@ststephensbos.org, ssypboston.org