San Francisco’s District 3 Celebrates National Summer Learning Week

SF Department of Children, Youth & Their Families

4 min readJul 29, 2024

Every year, summer programs all around the country participate in National Summer Learning Week, hosting events that celebrate and elevate the importance of summer programs for children, youth, and working families.

In San Francisco, non-profit, community-based organizations (CBOs) are one of the primary providers of summer programming for thousands of the City’s children and youth. These programs prevent the learning loss that can happen during the months that school is out, and they are a vital support for San Francisco’s working families, who can rely on these programs to keep their children engaged in learning, safe, and having fun throughout the summer. In 2024, every CBO that is funded by the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth, and their Families (DCYF) to provide comprehensive, all-day summer programs for children and youth in grades K-8 hosted events to celebrate Summer Learning Week.

San Francisco’s District 3, which includes the Chinatown, North Beach, and Telegraph Hill neighborhoods, hosted five Summer Learning Week events. Read on to find out how summer learning was celebrated in this part of San Francisco!

Charity Cultural Services Center

Charity Cultural Services Center’s summer campers celebrated Summer Learning Week at Presidio Tunnel Tops, taking the learning they typically do in the classroom out to the Field Station. At the Field Station, students became researchers, piecing together information about the history and natural enviornment that makes up the Presidio. Afterward, the campers played at the Outpost, a unique outdoor play area that inspires creativity and problem-solving through Presidio-inspired activities, and had a field day lead by Charity Cultural Service Center’s team of counselors. Students have a blast exploring and playing there. A full beautiful day of exploration, learning, and having fun with new and old friends!

Chinatown YMCA

The Chinatown YMCA’s summer programs all came together to celebrate Summer Learning Week by having some fun in the sun. Youth in the Chinatown YMCA’s Leadership Program organized a community field day at Crissy Field, with relay races, team building games, and sports activities. Everyone had a fun-filled day in one of the most iconic places in San Francisco!

Donaldina Cameron House

Donaldina Cameron House hosted different events each day of Summer Learning Week, including a field trip to the Chase Center, where they showed off impressive tree poses. The rest of the week featured Chinese heritage programming, including dragon dancing, singing traditional songs, and a guzheng performance!

Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center (TEL HI) Elementary School Academy

TEL HI’s Elementary School Academy celebrated summer learning by showcasing a typical day at their summer camp. And what a day: sports, gardening, nutrition, STEAM projects, and literacy activities!

TEL HI — Francisco Middle School Beacon

TEL HI’s summer camp at the Francisco Middle School Beacon hosted two very cool Summer Learning Week events: a build-your-own skateboard workshop, and their annual Cardboard Madness project. Pods of twenty students were tasked with co-designing and building a cardboard arch or tunnel, at least 6 feet tall and 8 feet wide, that utilized multiple cardboard engineering and attachment techniques and at least one moving mechanism. The final arches stood over a giant one-of-a-kind slip-n-slide that students slid down on showcase day!

Curious about DCYF’s investment in District 3? Here is a full list of our District 3 CBO grantee agencies, with links to their websites:

Check out our entire Summer Learning Week 2024 series on Medium to learn more about how all of our CBO grantees make San Francisco a great place to grow up!