The San Diego Foundation and San Diego Unified School District have around $14 million for community-based, youth development and education-serving nonprofits offering summer programming to students this year, it was announced Tuesday.
"The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect our communities and create inequities for our young people," said Mark Stuart, president and CEO of The San Diego Foundation. "Through Level Up SD and our partnership with San Diego Unified and local nonprofit organizations, we can help our children recover with consistent free summertime enrichment to accelerate learning and address their social-emotional needs."
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The deadline to apply for a grant is noon on Feb. 18. To assist with the grant application process, The San Diego Foundation will host a virtual Grantseekers Forum at 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 31. Registration is available on SDFoundation.org/LevelUpSD.
"The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted many of the existing gaps and inequities in our educational system, and the biggest gap of all happens over the summer, when students typically slide backwards in their learning," said Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, president of the San Diego Unified Board of Education. "We committed to funding both academic and enrichment activities last year over the summer to keep the learning going year-round, and this announcement today is the continuation of that commitment. We are all-in for expanded education opportunities all year."
Level Up SD began in summer 2021 with the intention of providing free summer academic and enrichment programming for students enrolled in San Diego Unified elementary, middle and high schools.
Last summer, along with morning academic programming provided by San Diego Unified, more than 12,000 students enrolled in afternoon enrichment programming provided by more than 80 San Diego-area nonprofit organizations, the San Diego Foundation reported.
