Summer Matters is the first ever statewide campaign focused on creating and expanding access to high-quality learning opportunities for all California students.
The California Library Association and public libraries in Fresno, Gilroy, Oakland, Los Angeles, Orland, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco, Santa Ana, Whittier and Willows worked with the Summer Matters campaign to make summer reading and library visits integral parts of California’s high quality summer learning programs.
Summer learning program staff have said:
“The children became really interested in books and wanted to read more because of our library visits.”
“The youth realized there are more than just books at the library and it’s really a space for them.”
Cooperation between community institutions strengthens all parties by leveraging and maximizing all of a community’s resources to the benefit of its children and youth. Summer Matters is bringing together the best elements of what schools, communities, and families have to offer to keep kids safe, engaged and learning when school is out.
Successes and lessons learned from the Summer Matters campaign have been developed into a guide for public libraries and community-based summer learning programs to developing meaningful summer partnerships.
- Key Partnership Criteria and Activities
- Partnership Tips
- Programming Ideas
- Information for Summer Programs about Public Libraries
- Information for Public Libraries about Community- and School-Based Summer Programs
CLA is a statewide Summer Matters campaign collaborator along with the California School Boards Association, California State PTA, California State Parks Foundation, Great Schools, and American Camp Association. The Summer Matters Campaign is an initiative of the Partnership for Children and Youth and its partners at The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the National Summer Learning Association, ASAP Connect, FowlerHoffman, Children Now and PR & Company.