A “Dynamite” Summer Program: Summer Together Initiative Spotlight on Family Connections Center
By Tina Tam
Every week for the next month, DCYF will publish Summer Together Initiative Spotlights that will feature agencies that operated summer camps and programs in summer 2021. Our first Summer Together Initiative Spotlight was written by Tina Tam, Education Director at long time DCYF grantee Family Connections Center.
Family Connections Centers’ summer program was called the Summer Academic Enrichment Program, and it operated from June 14 to August 6. The program served a total of 26 SFUSD children in Kindergarten to 5th grade. Our credentialed and highly qualified teachers engaged children in daily hands-on activities to get them excited about learning science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The program included indoor and outdoor activities, and weekly field trips. Our activities encouraged children to be creative, use their imagination, develop social and teambuilding skills, and use their critical thinking skills. Children developed strong bonds, made friends, and felt safe with us in the program. Family Connections Center is also a Family Resource Center, so our summer program served both the SFUSD children and helped connect many families with services and support, including employment and housing referrals, basic needs assistance, and food assistance.
A typical day in the Summer Academic Enrichment Program included both indoor and outdoor STEAM focused activities, independent activity workstations, outdoor games, and daily walks to the park. After checking in and getting the day started, we started with our morning group circle: this activity gathered children and staff for icebreakers and introduced the day’s lineup of events. Every morning children worked on literacy activities such journaling, reading, drawing, and word games. A morning snack was offered daily. After snack time, children worked in small group activity stations to explore, design, create, and have fun learning together. From there, we grabbed our lunches and headed to Palega Park for our meal break and to experience some outdoor fun, including soccer, basketball, and gymnastics and obstacle courses provided by a partnership with Fitness in Transit. The children had such a great time learning to tumble, do cartwheels, and backflips on the mats and outdoor gear provided by Fitness in Transit! We also had an amazing partnership with Catholic Charities CYO to provide buses for our weekly field trips, which provided new opportunities for the children to explore the California Academy of Sciences, Ocean Beach, Pier 39, miniature golfing at Stagecoach, and bowling at Yerba Buena.
The program this summer was truly special for children and families, as it took place during one of the most challenging times during a pandemic. So many things changed in the lives of the children — mask wearing, social distancing, etc. — but the children adapted to every change, and proved how resilient they are and continue to be.
We have so many great stories here at our program, so its hard to pick to just one to highlight. One that really stands out involves a child and family that arrived in San Francisco from Guatemala two months before shelter-in-place happened. The family did not knowing the city well, did not speak English, and did not know how to navigate the San Francisco Unified School District’s systems. On top of this, when shelter-in-place went into effect, the child had to adapt to distance learning. Fortunately, with the wonderful collaborative work of school social workers and our Family Connections staff, we were able to get the child into our Community Hub to support her distance learning during the school year, and then she continued with us in our summer program. The child started with us shy, reserved, and extremely quiet, and she only spoke up to ask to use the restrooms. After weeks of the teachers trying to engage her, she finally opened up during break times and outdoor activities. She realized she didn’t need to use language to play with others, and eventually felt more comfortable speaking Spanish with the teachers and other children. Week after week, our teachers continued to encourage her to learn and speak new English words, and she eventually became less shy and more willing to try to speak. She also befriended another child that was a monolingual Spanish speaker, and her friend encouraged her to speak English as well.
While the child was in our programs, the teachers were able to work closely with her mother, and quickly learned how much the family was struggling with housing and finances. The teachers were able to make a referral to our case managers and get the family housing resources, financial support, food vouchers, and even financial assistance for the child to continue with our current after school program.
I think what really resonated with me about this experience is the way all of us came together to not only support this child but the family. This family was reserved and did not want to ask for help, but eventually they opened up and found the courage to work with us to get the support they needed to continue to make progress in a very challenging time.
As a San Francisco native, born and raised, and now raising my own children in the city, I believe San Francisco is a great place for a growing family. I see the city continue to grow and improve every year. San Francisco is an amazing place to grow up as it offers so much to children and families. This city is so diverse and rich in cultural traditions and pride. The city is full of resources, opportunities, and experiences that allow for children to grow up being open-minded, accepted, and free to be themselves. The city is so family-friendly: there is always something fun to do and new places to explore, and it is filled with the most diverse of foods! We are so fortunate to have wonderful schools, libraries, recreation centers, and beautiful parks and playgrounds in every neighborhood for everyone to enjoy.
San Francisco can continue the effort to ensure high quality programs for children and families by ensuring that families feel supported by the city officials that represent them and other key stakeholders. San Francisco must demonstrate by actions to our families that we are all in this together and that they are not alone, and by continuing to place the well-being of young people as a priority. The Community Hub Initiative and Summer Together Initiative, free meals for children, and free Muni for youth, are all great beginnings to supporting growing families. The pandemic impacted a lot of children and families hard, and therefore more resources to support mental health services are needed. We need to look at providing more mental health services in schools, workplaces, and generally as a resource offered in the city.
On behalf of the teachers and staff of Family Connections Centers, we would like to say that we are very proud of the resilience that children and families have shown during the pandemic, and continue to demonstrate. Each member of our community continues to be brave and strong. We are so proud of being a part of the city’s efforts to support families during a challenging summer, and we are so proud of all the good work happening in the city with the support from DCYF and our fellow community-based organizations and partners.
What is a song that comes to mind when you think of Summer 2021?
The song “Dynamite” by BTS comes to mind because it was the top pick song every day for the children in the summer program: it got them on their feet, dancing and singing! Some of the older children in the program got introduced to K-pop, and asked our teachers to share some of BTS’s songs. “Dynamite” quickly became everyone’s favorite song: It’s upbeat, fun to dance to, and has a super fun music video. The children and teachers even started to refer to the summer program as a “dynamite” program! We have a big TV in our community room where children wind down with their day, and for pick-up we would typically have the “Dynamite” music video on to wrap up the day. We can all agree that the summer program was a fun-filled place for the children to be together to learn, laugh, play, and simply have a good time.
