Atlantic Gardens/Southern Hills 2007 Summer Day Camp Report
City Gate in partnership with Winn Residential Kids First and Oasis C.E.D.C
Summer Campers practice their reading skills
In partnership with Winn Residential Kids First and Oasis C.E.D.C, City Gate is pleased to report some of the successes of our first Summer Day Camp at our new location. With over 86 children ages 5-18 enrolled, two-thirds of them residing in the Atlantic Gardens and Southern Hills apartment complexes, we feel we met a real need in the community.
City Gate Steppers perform at National Night Out
City Gate Summer Day Camp has offered great opportunities of exploration and excitement at its Atlantic Gardens/Southern Hills location this summer. The children and youth received help with reading, writing, and math; learned new songs and games while interacting with volunteers from country; received Bible and character-building lesson; explored African-American history; and a NASA-developed science pilot program. They went on field trips to the National Zoo, Nationals Baseball Game, D.C. United Soccer Game, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Tucker Road Community Park and Pond, Washington Highlands Library, Mount Vernon Mansions, Tidal Basin, Chuck E Cheese, historic Annapolis, and Splashdown Waterpark in Virginia. We enjoyed watching their faces light up as they learned many wonderful things!
Children visit Clagett Farm, picking vegetables and learning about healthy food choices.
Youth and young adults had special opportunities in the form of the DOES "Passport-to-work" Youth Worker program, Mission:Opportunity Wednesday evening field trips, step and band classes, sewing classes, and movie nights. Oasis C. E.D.C. also provided youth ages 12-16 with daily B.O.S.S. the Movement classes, which taught youth development principles such as financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Through our evening programming, City Gate even formed its own Step Team called the "City Gate Steppers" that performed during the street carnival and later at National Night Out festivities.
We also had several Urban Hands Mission groups, who provided programs such as vacation bible school, chaperoned field trips, and put on concerts and street carnivals for all the residents to enjoy. These groups also performed facilities maintenance and clean-up projects around the apartment complexes, including rehabilitating a formerly unusable office space.
An Urban Hands volunteer shares his musical talent for drumming.
Over the 9 weeks of camp we served breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, giving out over 8,000 meals total. Finally, we were able to offer jobs to two residents as instructors aides in the camp – we value their hard work and input in the program!
Thanks to Winn Residential, OASIS C.E.D.C, and the support of many residents, our summer camp was a huge success!
A Different Perspective on Camp
One of our Summer Instructors, Ms. LaShawna Wills, had the follow stories to share, as examples of the ways participants grew and learned:
Music: All the children learned the lyrics to two songs, the Negro National Anthem and "Imagine Me" by Kirk Franklin. All the children wanted "Imagine Me" played at the very beginning of class fro them to sing along. They actually called this song their class song. At the beginning of camp, some of the children knew the lyrics but, most were learning the lyrics. By the end of camp, the whole class knew all the lyrics and all sang the songs together.
Mathematics: The children actually were grasping the concepts of regrouping and their multiplication times tables. Everyday, upon entering the classroom, the students started out with two problems on the board, one subtraction with regrouping and one multiplication. Most of the children had issues with the regrouping and didn't even know any of their multiplication tables. By the end of summer camp, the children that were having issues before finished the subtraction with regrouping, started learning their multiplication tables, and were working on their multiplication problems. They enjoyed working out these problems so much that they requested more so, I increased to two problems each everyday to the end of camp.
Science: The children really enjoyed doing the hands-on activities with the magnets and motors sessions as well as the BEEP (Beyond Einstein Explorers Program) activities, the telescopes, electromagnetic spectrums, even their science notebooks where they recorded their hypotheses and materials used and so much more. They were excited about taking their notebooks to school and showing their teachers all the things that were gone over during the summer and how much they had learned. It was very exciting and gratifying for me as their teacher to see that light bulb going off when they grasped the concepts and different things gone over.
The summer camp was a great success. Everyone got involved with the programming and different class activities and daily procedures; from the children to the youth workers, to the teacher's aide to even myself as their teacher! We all had a blast learning together. Total participation and involvement was definitely a goal that was met.
Outcomes of the Camp
For each program City Gate starts and operates, we set certain goals related to the experiences and accomplishments of the children and youth who attend the camp. Below is a summary of some the more measurable progress participants have made in areas such as academics, literacy, attitudes, and awareness of the world around them.
Goal #1: Sustained involvement of at least 20 neighborhood children in our OST program
What we accomplished: During our summer day camp, we had an enrollment of 86 an average daily attendance of 38 children and youth.
Goal #2: Increased mastery of academic fundamentals through individual or small-group tutoring
What we accomplished: Over the course of the summer day camp, 25% of children made significant improvement in reading with 6% making drastic improvement, 19% of children made significant improvement in writing with 3% making drastic improvement, and 50% of children made significant improvement in math with 28% making drastic improvement.
Goal #3: Increased computer literacy by spending 2 hours/week developing computer skills through Internet research, basic word processing, and access to online academic tutoring resources.
What we accomplished: Because of our move to a new location (after losing our space in the Johenning Baptist Community Center), we were unable to provide computer activities during our summer day camp.
Goal #4: Increased love of learning and intellectual curiosity through lessons in secondary subjects (e.g. science, economics, geography) and varied field trips
What we accomplished: Children and youth were exposed to a very wide variety of secondary subjects and extra-curricular activities over the course of our summer day camp. Activities such as step classes, science (through the CYITC pilot programs), African-American History, and entrepreneurship were supported by guest speakers, field trips, and community service.
Goal #5: Minimization of high-risk behaviors (drug abuse, promiscuity, violence) through weekly age-appropriate programs on decision making and character development
What we accomplished: Over the course of our summer day camp 26% of children made significant improvement in their attitude with 8% making drastic improvement and 47% of children made significant improvement in their behavior with 6% making drastic improvement.
Goal #6: Encouraging good nutrition and health decisions (using the daily supper as a teaching tool)
What we accomplished: Children and youth were served breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day during the summer day camp through the State Education Office and the Capitol Area Food Bank.
Continuing into the fall
Kids in the summer day camp received backpacks filled with school supplies on the last day of camp.
We have begun an after-school program, with an emphasis on homework help, academic enrichment, and nutritious meals every evening. We are also happy to also report the opening of our emergency food pantry and clothing closet.
As we prepare to meet the most important needs of our children and families in the coming months, would you consider donating some of the following?
- Gas station gift cards
- Grocery store gift cards
- New toys and clothes for children ages 5-18
- Non-perishable food items
- Arts and craft supplies
- Used but working musical instruments
Even better, would you consider sponsoring a child over the course of the school year? It costs us approximately $2,500 to provide each child with quality after-school programming, a hot meal, and special events such as field trips and holiday celebrations such as Christmas dinner. Right now we have enough funds to have 20 kids in our after-school program, will you help us reach our goal of 40 participants?