Providence, RI- The Greater YMCA of Providence (GPYMCA) has been awarded $20,400 in grant funds to promote summertime enrichment and critical initiatives for underserved children and teens in urban communities around Rhode Island.
“Keeping our young people engaged in the summer months is crucial to continued success in the classroom,” said Karen Santilli, CEO of the GPYMCA. “We are so grateful for our partners at DEM and the RI Education Collective for helping us empower and uplift often marginalized students, through expanded access to life changing programming.”
The RI Department of Environmental Services (RI DEM) provided $12,400 to support scholarships for swim lessons at the GPYMCA’s Cranston and East Side locations. This life saving programming equips kids and their families with skills that encourage safety and help them to be confident in and around water. Approximately 3 in 10 parents report not prioritizing swim lessons or water safety with their child due to cost. Through this funding, families will have the opportunity to access free lessons free of financial burden.
The Y introduced the country to group swim lessons over 110 years ago in 1909. Now, as one of the largest community-based organizations in the country, they teach more than a million children nationwide, especially those most at risk of drowning, invaluable water safety and swimming skills each year.
In addition, the RI Education Collective provided $8,000 to support the GPYMCA’s Providence Youth Services summer programming for multilingual learning students. This innovative camp seeks to reduce summer learning loss for economically disadvantaged and multilingual learning students, through targeted math and literacy interventions paired with engaging enrichment programs. Summer can and should still be a fun time of year for children, but learning doesn’t need to take a break.
For more information on registration and programming, click here.
