Sponsor a child at the Boys & Girls Club

This summer, thanks to generous donors like you who sponsored kids at the Club, youth in the Oak View neighborhood had not only a safe place to spend their summer days, but also a place to learn and get prepared for success in the new school year at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley’s Oak View Branch. Throughout the months of July and August, the Boys & Girls Club’s Oak View Branch was open from 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Monday-Friday. This is the first time in many years that a summer program has been available to Oak View area youth. Thanks to generous donors like you, the program was completely FREE for youth in the low-income Oak View neighborhood. The community’s response was overwhelmingly positive, with about 120 kids participating each day!

100% of the kids at our Oak View Branch come from low-income households, and nearly all speak a language other than English at home. That puts them at a significant risk of summer learning loss, especially in reading. In fact, at the end of the summer, there is typically a three month gap between lower income and middle income youth who were at the same reading level at the end of the school year. The Club decided to take action to fix this problem with an 8 week summer reading program. The Club chose KidzLit, a reading enrichment program specifically designed for out of school settings like the Boys & Girls Club.

The Club’s goal was to help the kids maintain the reading levels they had at the end of the school year and not lose any ground. The Club got a wonderful surprise when the program’s reading assessments were tallied up at the end of the summer.

• 100% of the children who participated in KidzLit for the entire summer at least maintained their reading levels. This means we achieved our goal – the rest is unexpected and fantastic!

• 33% of youth were reading below grade level at the beginning of summer. By the end of summer, that dropped to just 15%.

• Of the 33% of youth whose reading levels were one or more grade levels behind at the beginning of the summer, 65% improved one or more grade levels, including 30% who improved 2 or more grade levels.

• 70% of all participating youth improved one or more grade levels, including 22% who improved 2 or more grade levels.

• 65% of youth are now reading ABOVE grade level!

With results like these, you can be sure that you are making a real difference to children in need by supporting the Boys & Girls Club.  Thank you!