Summer Readers & Leaders (SRL), our free 5-week long intensive literacy program,  helps prevent summer learning loss in students from Holyoke’s low-resource neighborhoods, providing a bridge across the long summer vacation to the school year.

Research shows that students in low-resource areas like Holyoke lose over 2 months of reading grade-level equivalency over the summer, compared to no loss or slight gains for children from more affluent areas who have access to stimulating summer activities.

Over the 5 weeks, the children work individually and in small groups with credentialed reading teachers in focused literacy activities.

But it’s not all work! Traditional summertime activities take place after lunch with a combination of indoor and outdoor activities such as arts & crafts, cooperation games, board games and computer time. Weekly trips to the library and field trips round out the summer.

Summer Readers & Leaders includes breakfast, lunch and a snack - critically important at a time when many of the children would otherwise go hungry.