GIVE A SUMMER PRESENTATION TO

NEW URBAN MECHANICS

Technology opportunities to improve summer

programming in Boston

Prepared by Give a Summer

ramon@giveasummer.org

GiveaSummer.org

Note – This is an attempt to list different whiteboard ideas for how technology could improve

summer outcomes.

This is not intended as a list of work that hasn’t been done yet or what should be done next.

Rather it is a record of different ideas to illustrate how technology can – and may already! – help

improve summer outcomes for kids.

Tech opportunities –

Improve discovery, enrollment & engagement• Create parent / kid facing interface that help parents/kids easily find and enroll in summer programs

• Develop ‘recommended programs’ to improve parent / kid & mentor decision-making

• For example, generate 1-page recommended program lists unique to each school that can be sent home to

parents

• Problems – Need to reach kids & parents offline, help sort through options, benefit from showing opportunities

(beyond describing where to find them)

• Connect real-time tracking of availability in summer programs to enrollment website

• Current – after-the-fact Boston Beyond survey of summer program capacity

• Problems – churn & missed opportunities because kids/families can’t be directed to available programs in real-

time

• Create site for local counselors / mentors / families to log problems with summer opportunities in their area

for quick troubleshooting

• (perhaps integrate with Mayor’s Youth Line calls?)

• Problems – system-wide, may not have clear picture of hiccups & blocks, especially in real-time

• Create way for programs to text reminders to kids & parents

• Problem – typically, 10% to 20% of kids don’t show up for programs they’ve signed up for

• Tie together summer participation to school records to identify at-risk kids missing out on opportunities

• Problem – no surveying of what kids do over the summer, not connected to school year records

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Tech opportunities –

Expand and improve summer opportunities

• Expand summer program opportunities

• Expand summer opportunities with technology – Cities of Learning

initiative

• Idea - increase out of school opportunities by creating apps for /

‘gamifying’ learning

• Make better decisions about summer program resources

• Create better map of summer program resources to identify gaps in

coverage (compare summer programs to student populations)

• Make it easier for review of programs / feedback to be collected

electronically & put online

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Appendix

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Background – Give a Summer

• Give a Summer is a new, not for profit organization to help

more young kids participate in enriching summer

programs

• Works to develop promising policy, advocacy, and program

innovations to expand summer program participation

• Tries to find great partners to help improve these ideas and push

them forward

• Immediate goal is to partner with a school district to

• Survey young kids (and parents) this fall about summer activities

• Use that data and the help of community supporters and mentors to

increase enrollment in next summer’s programs

• Started and run by Ramon Gonzalez, a recent Yale

College graduate

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Give a Summer’s beliefs

• Summer programs can play a crucial role in youth development, though many kids do not have access or enroll in them.

• Recently, there has been increased study of effective summer programs and some expansion of them to underserved kids.

• Still, too many young kids, especially kids who are academically struggling or from lower income backgrounds, do not participate in enriching summer opportunities.

We can do better (cheaply and quickly)

• Survey young kids’ summer activities to identify gaps in access or enrollment

• Increase the low enrollment of struggling and lower income kids in available summer programs• Partner with mentor organizations to attract young kids to summer programs

• Involve young adults in a summer-oriented mentorship program for young kids

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Give a Summer’s approach

• Focus on the problems of low enrollment and limited data

on youth summer activities

• Why?

• Not much has been done about these problems

• Efficient approaches to start addressing them

• Benefits from this approach –

• “Easy” way to increase participation

• Helps advocacy efforts by demonstrating demand & improving

knowledge of gaps in access

• Brings in outside groups to summer program issues

• Increasing funding / greater access advocacy is being done well,

partly successfully, and with tremendous effort by others

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