Education

Keep young kids engaged while they are at home.

If you’d met Insharah last August, after her first year in the Fun in the Sun summer learning program, you would never know that she’d started the summer as a shy and quiet student. This confident, enthusiastic, and effusive fifth-grader was dramatically different from the girl who’d enrolled in Fun in the Sun six weeks prior.

For more than 15 years, Kindergarten Success Institutes (KSI) have been making a huge difference in the lives of 4-6 year old children from low-resource neighborhoods by helping them get ready to succeed in school. These kids have little or no educational experience and are often terrified at being away from home.

Legos have become one of the most prolific toys of all time. Simple, polychromatic, plastic blocks have been tweaked, remixed, and configured in a multiplicity of formats. You can find Legos that create a farm, Legos for 3 year olds, or Legos that replicate the Millennium Falcon (Star Wars).

Legos have such a robust usage because, at their core, Legos represent an essential human value: the desire to build.

United for Literacy (UFL) is UWSBC’s largest initiative and consists of numerous programs that aim to improve education within the Santa Barbara community. One of the various programs that fall under UFL is Kindergarten Success Institutes (KSI).  The program operates 3-4 weeks before the start of kindergarten, where students learn school-related behaviors that are essential to their success throughout their schooling.

United Way of Santa Barbara County is ecstatic to announce a $120,000 grant from the Errett Fisher Foundation to support the newly-established Santa Ynez Valley site of Fun in the Sun for the next three years!

The grant ensures that United Way has seed funding that will guarantee this additional site through 2018 and beyond to serve dozens of Santa Ynez Valley’s disadvantaged children and families each summer.

Martin didn't pay attention in his Fun in the Sun class.  Incredibly active during playtie, he was disengaged in the classroom.  He had a stutter and became very fatigued when asked to write, read or use the Power Reading and Power Math programs.  Martin's mom sensed that he was struggling, so when his program leader reached out to her, she was prepared to help.  Together, Martin's mother and program leader created a sticker reward system that applied both at Fun in the Sun and home.  His mom visted class when she could and followed up on the class work he did during the program.  Martin be