For many of us, summer brings back childhood memories of backyard barbeques, summer camps, days spent by the sand and water, escapes to museums or road trips to new places. Yet, summer is often anything but a vacation for millions of students from low-income households in the United States. Instead of a time to explore new interests and locations, it’s often a period when children and families struggle to afford basic necessities and opportunities to enrich learning.

Lack of access to stimulating learning activities leads to a phenomenon called summer learning loss, when young people lose academic skills during their time away from school. This loss contributes many debilitating effects to a young person’s personal achievement and success in school. Summer learning loss is also a key reason why many children from low-income households experience an achievement gap between their peers from medium and high-income households.

As these children in our communities fall behind, the gap grows ever wider. Recent studies show the achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is roughly 30 to 40 percent larger among children born after 2001 than among those born twenty-five years earlier.

Fortunately, there is hope. Support and collaboration from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, and the Sarasota County School District produced multiple programs with an array of partners to offer engaging and enrichment summer learning opportunities for the most vulnerable youth in our region. Not only are academic activities offered, but food and other assistance for the students and their families as well. These programs have proved to improve academic skills, school engagement, motivation and relationships with adults and peers.

One of my favorite young people, who I met at the Lee Wetherington Boys & Girls Club of Sarasota County, is a shining example of the amazing accomplishments these programs can make. When I first met her, kindergartener Roxanna’s (you know I love her name!) English comprehension was weak, she shied away from people, and quickly fell behind her peers. Over the years I witnessed her grow through the summer programs offered at BGCS. Now getting ready to enter second grade, Roxanna is reading above grade-level, has a passion for learning, and confidently introduces herself to all those she meets. It just goes to show the power of a safe, enriching, and engaging place for a young person to learn, when they otherwise would not have one available!

After learning that the average ratio of age-appropriate books per child is 1 for every 300 in low-income neighborhoods compared to 13 books for one child in middle-income neighborhoods, we decided to change the odds. Thanks to funding from a donor, the Community Foundation was able to purchase 42,000 children’s books with the plan to distribute them to children from low-income households on July 14th, National Summer Learning Day, an annual national advocacy day led by the National Summer Learning Association to highlight the importance of keeping kids learning, safe and healthy every summer.

Roxie Jerde is president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.