Fun in the Sun Summer Learning Program

About Fun in the Sun Summer Learning Program

For nearly two decades, United Way of Santa Barbara County has been offering the Fun in the Sun program—a nationally recognized summer learning collaborative initiative. Involving 80 service delivery partners, 20+ funding partners, and over 600 volunteers, FITS has grown from a program originally designed to tackle summer learning loss to one that now provides a holistic approach to summertime support for students and their families. Fun in the Sun provides a well-rounded experience, with mindfulness activities, STEAM instruction, mentorship programs, environmental education classes, and field trips. Hundreds of students and families in the Santa Barbara County community benefit from all these enriching activities, creating a truly positive summer experience.

Programs

The classes, camps and experiences this business offers.

Fun in the Sun

As school lets out for the summer, many parents from low-resource communities struggle to balance an intense workload and lack of resources with the needs of their children. Despite best efforts, many of these children spend the summer alone, without access to learning tools and basic needs that are offered during the traditional school year, like reading help and daily meals and snacks. These students are at the highest risk for summer learning loss, a major contributor to the achievement gap between students from low and high-income households. Fun in the Sun provides students and their families with unique and engaging learning experiences to reduce and reverse summer learning loss and narrow the achievement gap, ensuring academic success during the school year and beyond.

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Tutoring Program

At the United Learning Center, tutors assess every student before creating a customized learning plan. Tutors monitor students' progress, instructing and coaching them along the way. All ULC tutors are trained in the Orton-Gillingham methods of literacy instruction, which can support students with Dyslexia and similar learning differences.

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Early Learning Success Institutes (ELSI)

Distance learning has caused significant disruptions in the learning and social development of young students who have had little, if any, in-person learning. Therefore in 2021, United Way has expanded its pre-K and Kindergarten in-person academic support programs and rebranded as Early Learning Success Institutes (ELSI) that will operate in 5 school districts to also address the learning needs of grades 1-2. We will serve young students who need additional support outside of the classroom, and we will integrate these services with our United Learning Center tutoring.

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