A Rochester-based program helps kids leap over summer learning loss.
Greater Rochester Summer Learning Association President & CEO Luis A. Perez spoke with us about the organization’s successful summertime academic intervention program.
You’ve been with Greater Rochester Summer Learning Association (summerLEAP) for almost 15 years, how did you find yourself in this work?
Luis Perez: In the mid 1980s, my wife and I founded an outreach ministry for kids here in Rochester. The kids were struggling — one kid’s dad was in jail; another had just been suspended from school. I had grown up poor in the city of Rochester, and though my parents were very resourceful, things had been hard. I knew I wanted to make more of an impact, so I went back to school and became a social worker. It was what my heart told me to do. For last 35 years now, I’ve been focused on improving the lives of inner-city families.
How have you seen summerLEAP change since you first began working there?
In my first nine years with summerLEAP, we grew from 135 kids to 1,500 kids at 23 sites. At that time, we were EPK to rising ninth graders. And then the pandemic hit. Coming out of the COVID, we looked at everything we had built. It was unbelievable, really. But we also decided to let go our K-8 sites. We wanted to put all our efforts into the group that was sliding through the cracks, and so we changed our work to focus on Rochester’s three-year-olds and four-year-olds, making sure they were as kindergarten-ready as possible. Focusing on this segment of educational pipeline has changed the number of kids we serve, but we’ve also been able to focus our services more on the things that this specific age group really benefits from.
Can you tell us about some of the additional services?
Over the years, we’ve added a very robust science kit to the curriculum, which has been wonderful. We give each center a science kit with everything that they need to provide four lessons a week. Helping the kids develop an interest in science at such a young age opens a whole new world of possibilities for them. We’ve also recently added a swim program. It’s such an important life skill that often gets missed, especially in minority communities, and can lead to dangerous consequences. The swimming has been transformative for the kids; they’re overcoming a fear and gaining confidence as well as the skill. And they’re having fun! I tell my team, we’re purveyors of hope and we’re purveyors of joy.
How do the families you serve find summerLEAP?
A lot of these kids have been with these centers since infancy. What we’re able to do is just extend their ability to continue providing services for families throughout the summers. This means the kids and families are already comfortable with the facilities and the care providers and teachers. Without the option to continue through the summer, the kids were experiencing great learning loss, but families were also losing a place to send their kids to go be safe and be fed. For low resource families, that’s a major issue. Without us, many families would also have to leave their jobs to care for their kids over the summer, but with our help, they get to maintain their employment.
How else does summerLEAP provide for your community?
The past summer 2024, summerLEAP was responsible for creating a hundred jobs. What we’re doing is leveraging this unbelievable system that’s already there. There are 60 classroom jobs that we add just by keeping these centers open in the summer and then add to that swim instructors, cooks, and more. Without us, these people would be furloughed or laid-off during the summer.
It’s clear this work is so important; how do you make sure the kids keep coming back?
We go and sit with the parents and explain to them why it’s important for them to make sure their kid comes to the program every day. I call it academic intervention. We build that rapport with families to make sure that the kids get to us. We also have the centers we partner with look for the kids who really needs this intervention, and then they’ll give the parents our information. We’re already actively recruiting and enrolling for next summer.
What’s the best part of your job?
Every time I start with a new family, I begin with this question: What’s your vision for this little one? I’ve sat across some tough situations — addiction, alcoholism. But I’ve never had a parent who didn’t have an answer. I’ll never forget this one time I went to a house and the little girl was sitting on her mom’s lap. I asked the mom my question and she just stared at me. Through social work, I was taught to be comfortable with silence, so I waited and then she just started bawling. Like somebody had cut her arm off. Sobbing. And the little girl looks up at her mother and asks if she’s okay. I said to the mom, “Tell me about it. What’s going on?” She told me that she’d had her own vision once, a vision of walking across a stage and graduating from high school, which had, for many reasons, never happened. “So now,” the mom said, “my dream is for my daughter to cross the stage.” I looked at her daughter and told the mom that I had the same vision. 95% of our kids graduate from high school, so I said that if she committed to bringing her child to summerLEAP, I could almost guarantee you that she’d be able to fulfill that vision. The parents all dream big for these kids, despite the odds, and we do too. And once they join us, the dream can become a reality, and we’re all working toward that shared goal.