Iredell-Statesville Schools School & Family Magazine February 2018 | Page 12

Every Child Deserves the
Chance to Succeed
YMCA Summer Learning Academy
helping those most at risk
When summer break comes, many
children are focused on family vacations
and summer camp. Those kids will
continue to learn all summer long through
new experiences. They will have books
at home on their grade level that they
can continue reading and access to other
tools that ensure that don’t fall down the
slippery slope of summer learning loss.
But not all students in our community are
so fortunate.
For some of the most academically
at-risk children in the Iredell-Statesville
School System, summer is not filled with
opportunity. Those children may wonder
where their next meal will come from
without the certainty of school-provided
breakfasts and lunches. They may
spend a summer playing video games or
sitting in front of a TV instead of growing
through enriching experiences that expand their knowledge of the world and enhance their learning. And
they are put at serious risk for summer learning loss. Studies show that students, on average, lose one
month of learning over the summer.  For lower-income students, the loss is even greater. 
“When a student leaves at the end of the school year, they have been completely immersed in a
learning environment for the past several months,” says Lisa Brooks, Iredell-Statesville Schools Secondary
Instructional Facilitator and Program Director for the YMCA SLA. “But when summer comes, all of that hard
work can fall to the wayside and summer learning
loss sets in. That means when they come back
the next year, the educator is spending precious
instructional time helping that student get back
up to grade level when they should be focused
on the next year’s learning.”
That’s where the YMCA Summer Learning
Academy, funded by the United Way of Iredell
County and donations to the Statesville Family
YMCA’s Annual Giving Campaign, steps in.
YMCA Summer Learning Academies (SLAs)
give students from Title I schools the opportunity
to stay on grade level while having a great
time in a structured environment. The program
is focused on fighting summer learning loss
10 Iredell-Statesville School & Family