San Francisco’s District 8 Celebrates National Summer Learning Week

SF Department of Children, Youth & Their Families

5 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 8, which includes the Mission, Glen Park, Noe Valley, and Castro neighborhoods, hosted seven Summer Learning Week events. Read on to find out how summer learning was celebrated in this part of San Francisco!

Bay Area Community Resources (BACR) — Mission Education Center Beacon

BACR’s Mission Education Center Beacon students celebrated Summer Learning Week with art stations, STEAM activity stations, and yummy healthy smoothies before closing out with fun water activities!

Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco

Summer Learning Week was intense for the 6–11 year olds who attend the Boys & Girls Clubs’ summer programs: youth from all 12 of the San Francisco Clubhouses came together at the Columbia Park Clubhouse for the annual BGCSF Citywide Spelling Bee! Participants prepared all summer for the Spelling Bee through BGCSF’s literacy enrichment programs. Each Clubhouse sent a team of four youth to compete in the bee. Awards were given to the highest performing team, and to individuals who scored the most points. All participating youth were provided with gift bags for their effort, and got some love on the BGCSF social media channels. Parents, family members, and friends were invited to cheer the youth, and everyone celebrated afterward with food and drinks.

Children’s After School Arts (CASA)

CASA celebrated National Summer Learning week a little early, for a wonderful reason: they were selected as the organizational Grand Marshal for SF Pride! To kick off Pride weekend, CASA hosted an event to celebrate the culmination of week three of their ‘Summer of Magic’ camp. Campers explored intersectional identities, senses, the joys of being ‘different,’ what makes us who we are, and what brings us together to form community. Campers participated in a ‘Magical Me Pride Carnival,’ decorated ‘I am Magic’ t-shirts, identified issues in their community that could use some magic, and made magic wands. CASA campers also transformed their play structure into a stage, and kids and teachers performed in a Pride cabaret. CASA campers, teachers, and friends and family marched in the SF Pride parade, and CASA teacher Persia — one of the original members of Drag Queen Story Hour — read the Story of CASA on the main stage from a giant prop book that was decorated by campers. Students then joined Persia in a dance number. How fabulous!

Mission Graduates — Everett Middle School Beacon

Olympics action started early for the students at the Mission Graduates Beacon at Everett Middle School. Their Summer Learning Week event was a Mini Olympics, which began with students writing in their journals about their favorite sport or activity, and why that activity makes them happy. Students then engaged in a series of games, including kickball, which they believe should be an official sport in the next Olympics!

Mission Graduates — Sanchez Elementary Beacon

Mission Graduates’ campers at the Sanchez Beacon also kicked off the Olympics early, hosting a Spirit Week for Summer Learning Week that include Olympics-themed sports and activity stations. The event marked the end of the 2024 summer program at the Sanchez Beacon, and celebrated students’ achievements.

Mission YMCA

Top Chef Junior was going on at the Mission YMCA for Summer Learning Week: students and their families got together to learn how to cook a meal as a team. Students practiced communication skills, took the lead on tasks, and used teamwork to make garlic bread, guacamole, deserts, and more. Students tasted each other’s dishes, and prepared plates for their families. Yum!

Mission YMCA — Dolores Huerta Elementary Beacon

Summer Learning Week was the final week of the Mission YMCA’s Dolores Huerta Beacon summer program. Students participated in exit interviews with their Assistant Teachers to talk about highlights of program. Students identified goals for themselves, completed future self portraits and displayed them as a class, and posed for final group photos.

Curious about DCYF’s investment in District 8? Here is a full list of our District 8 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!