The goal for Great Public Schools Now (GPSN) Summer of Joy 2022 was to broaden the selection of activities and programs offered to students throughout Los Angeles. In addition to addressing the ongoing effects of the pandemic, GPSN realized the vast difference in opportunities between low-income and higher-income students in terms of the summer programs they have access to. By increasing access to specialized programs such as STEM, arts, and sports, that can be done on-site, GPSN aimed to enhance the overall summer experience for students. Furthermore, GPSN included a plan to make field trips and other activities, which were not possible due to the pandemic, available for students.
The LA Summer Collaborative, the name for GPSN’s ongoing partnership, is a collective effort involving the Los Angeles Unified, the City of Los Angeles, non-profit partners, and local philanthropy. Since December 2021, the LA Summer Collaborative has been meeting on a monthly basis, with partners reaffirming their commitment to carrying on our collaboration and programming from Summer 2021 into Summer 2022 and beyond. After assessing Summer of Joy 2021, we identified four main areas of focus for our collaboration in 2022: Program Enhancements and Field Trips, Family Awareness and Access, Summer Staffing, and Data Collection.
At the LA Sports Council, we were grateful to partner with GPSN to support these areas of focus. We took part in Summer of Joy for the second year in a row in 2022. Thanks to our strong network, we offered specialized sports programs from eight partner organizations, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kings, Rams, and Sparks, and also Ready Set Gold! Together, participating organizations ran 175 sports clinics at Summer of Joy 2022 sites, which totaled 240 hours of sports programming.
In just four weeks this summer, the LA Sports Council and Ready, Set, Gold! programs made a significant impact at a large scale, with 79 schools participating, 2,010 students engaged, and all of them being 100% Title 1 schools.
In the year 2022, over 60,000 students from LAUSD were served by the 781 sites that participated in the Summer of Joy initiative by GPSN. Additionally, it was the first time that every student had the chance to attend one of the more than 900 field trips that were made available that summer!
We are very proud to partner with Great Public Schools Now and are excited to continue working together to make a positive impact in Los Angeles.
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About GPSN
GPSN is a nonprofit intermediary organization exclusively focused on improving Los Angeles public education. GPSN envisions a public school system in Los Angeles that prepares all students to succeed in school and to live thriving adult lives. Guided by this vision, our mission is to bring together the Los Angeles community to catalyze the transformation of the public education system so that students of color and students living in poverty gain the knowledge, skills, and experiences to lead thriving adult lives.
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