“We are looking to provide programming options in St. Louis for the summer that enhances the 360 degree child,” said. Maxine Clark. “We want them to discover their passion and to do something that makes them smile every day.”
Clark is applying the acumen and savvy that aided her in growing Build-A-Bear Workshop into a leading retailer towards providing students – particularly those in underserved communities – with access to summer programming options by spearheading and providing funding for Blueprint4SummerSTL.
The all-new mobile app and website was launched this week and directly links St. Louis area families to hundreds of summer classes, camps and activity programs.
“One of the things that I think is wrong in education is that we don’t think about the parent and students as consumers of education –and that we should engage them,” Clark said. “It’s about bringing opportunities that allows kids to see the world beyond them, and that’s what these summer programs do. When I left Build-A-Bear I wanted to apply this consumer mentality to education.”
By creating a one stop shop for area programs, Blueprint4Summer gives all parents access to summer offerings. The free, easy-to-use tool is accessible via computer or smartphone at http://blueprint4summer.com.
“Our hope is that Blueprint4Summer will make the many wonderful programs available in
St. Louis accessible to all parents and children regardless of zip code,” Clark said. “While available to all families, Blueprint4Summer fills an important void for under-resourced families, giving them easy-to-access information about what programs are available in their area within their budget.”
More than 300,000 children are in enrolled in K-12 schools throughout the metro St. Louis area and will be seeking ways to fill their summers. Blueprint4Summer helps get the process started early – and their hope is that their extensive marketing outreach will help summer programs reach enrollment goals earlier than ever and plan their summer staffing needs accordingly.
“The real core behind this is that we are making the information accessible,” Clark said. “It’s like a giant camp fair in an app. There are hundreds of programs.”
Through the mobile app or website, a parent or guardian can do a search based on any number of preferences such as age, gender, interests, price and zip code. They can also find information about day camps, sleep-away camps and sports camps; art, music and science programs; and academic enrichment courses in STEM. Currently there are more than 1,000 summer sessions listed and the database is growing daily as enrollment periods begin and more organizations learn about the Blueprint4Summer mobile app.
“We’ve worked very hard to make sure Blueprint4SummerSTL is something that is user friendly,” said Allie DeSmet Programs Manager for Blueprint4SummerSTL. “We want to be a reliable resource. We hope that it will be helpful and will remove some of the stress and anxiety that can come with planning for summer.”
The app allows parents to search the offerings, get links to the organizations’ websites to learn camp locations via Google maps, how to apply, if they offer before and after care, and if scholarships are available.
When creating a free account on Blueprint4Summer, parents can bookmark their favorite programs, save their search results and be kept informed as new programs are added to the database. They can also print a calendar that maps out the summer plans – color-coded for each of their children –and shows if there are overlaps or gaps in the schedules.
“We also hope that through using us parents will tell other parents that there are hundreds of programs out there – and that there is no reason for their children to stay home without something engaging to do during the summer,” DeSmet said.
According to the Forum for Youth Investment, low-income youth experience a three-month loss in reading performance, and all youth experience roughly two months’ worth of losses in math computation during the summer months. While all children made similar school-year gains in the early grades, summer learning loss may account for 80 percent of the achievement gap between advantaged and economically disadvantaged youth.
Blueprint4Summer is made possible by financial and business partnerships that include the Clark-Fox Foundation, Build-A-Bear Workshop Foundation, Emerson Charitable Trust & Emerson Employee Contributions, Express Scripts, Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield, Jess Yawitz, John McDonnell, Joyce Wood Charitable Fund, Ron and Pam Rubin, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis Regional Chamber, The Deaconess Foundation, The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, The McDowell Family Foundation, Ward & Carol Klein, William H. Danforth and the William T. Kemper Foundation – Commerce Bank, Trustee.
The app will be distributed widely in the St. Louis area through schools, community centers, the United Way, churches and youth programs in order to bring information and access to the broadest audience.
“Summer activities are a crucial part of intellectual development that enable children to spend their vacation time constructively, develop their passions and creativity, advance their learning and, of course, have fun,” said Clark. “We know that summer learning loss is huge, but we want it to be summer learning gain – and not just something that they have to learn for school, but something that could enhance their lives.”
For more information about Blueprint4Summer, to learn about programs and to connect with other parents online, “like” Blueprint4SummerSTL on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Blueprint4SummerSTL or follow Blueprint4SummerSTL on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/B4SSTL.
Blueprint4Summer also gives organizations the opportunity to list their offerings for free. Small programs (with less than 10 offerings) can enter their information online at http://goo.gl/forms/w91OqVkEUR. Organizations with more extensive offerings should email Programs Manager Allie DeSmet at allie@blueprint4summer.com.
