52 SARASOTA SCENE | MAY 2019
started, the budget for this successful school district program
$2.4 in 2020.
Community Investment, points out that it’s not just kids who are
winning here. Thanks to a two-generation approach, parents
are also getting help over the summer. In addition to the six
cost-free weeks of school instruction and daylong enrichment
activities, parents have weekly classes of their own they take,
which shows their kids that learning is important to everyone.
university component,” reports Russell. “We’re looking at what
we can do for parents. We want to make use of that time to
bring parents into the picture. We want parents to start talking
about their dreams. We want them to feel part of the story, too.”
She points out that while low-income families have access to
don’t know about the available resources. With donors, the
“We want to make use of that
time to bring parents into the
picture. We want parents to start
talking about their dreams. We
want them to feel part of the
story, too.”
- Kirsten Russell, the Community Foundation’s
Director of Community Investment