What's the problem we're trying to solve?

For some children, summertime means camp, visits to museums, parks, and libraries, and access to a variety of fun and enriching activities. For many low-income children, however, the reality of summer is far from this ideal. When the school doors close for the summer, too many children lack access to quality educational and developmental opportunities as well as basic needs like healthy meals, and safe places to be with adult supervision. As a result, they experience well-documented setbacks in academic performance which contribute to growth in the achievement gap. They also face nutritional setbacks which contribute to the problem of childhood obesity.

Our vision and mission.

The vision of the National Summer Learning Association is for every child to be safe, healthy, and engaged in learning during the summer. To realize that vision, our mission is to connect and equip schools and community organizations to deliver quality summer learning programs to our nation’s youth to help close the achievement gap and support healthy development..

What we do.

The National Summer Learning Association serves as a network hub for thousands of summer learning program providers and stakeholders across the country, providing tools, resources, and expertise to improve program quality, generate support, and increase youth access and participation. We offer professional development, quality assessment and evaluation, best practices dissemination and collaboration, and strategic consulting to states, school districts, community organizations, and funders. Our efforts are focused on achieving the following results:

• Increase the number of providers offering high-quality summer learning programs to young people living in poverty;
• Increase the number of organizations and policymakers that identify summer learning as a public policy priority; and
• Increase funding for high-quality summer learning programs for young people who currently lack choices and opportunities.