San Mateo County's Big Lift gets $1M in state funding

The state funding, advocated by state Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, will help fund a five-week summer learning program with full-day STEAM and literacy enrichment for 1,200 low-income kindergarten through third grade students, and will also support the implementation of an evidence-based literacy program for the 2021-22 school year for 720 low-income preschool students.

“We’re grateful to Senator Becker and the state as this money will allow more children to participate in this important high-quality program across San Mateo County, helping to close the literacy gap in children of color and low-income children,” San Mateo County Supervisor Carole Groom said in a statement.

During the pandemic, most of the preschool programs were able to reopen for in-person learning in July of 2020 at limited capacity, and a smaller group did distance learning, said Diana Harlick, coordinator of The Big Lift’s Early Learning Quality Improvement Initiatives.

For its summer program last year, it was able to offer an abbreviated version of the program, with a half day experience in person, supplemented by distance activities and learning, and calls from the educators that they weren’t seeing in person, Thorsteinson said.

“Seeing the deficits that were emerging and the really significant learning loss, in particular, are disproportionately affecting children of color, we really decided that we needed to offer a full day in-person program this summer. And so we were able to work with all of our partners and accomplish that,” she said.

It also expanded the program to serve more youth by adding an additional grade level for rising third graders, added some supplemental math and phonics enrichments for its rising kindergartners, and added an additional fifth week. And slots were filled up faster than previous summers, she said.

“We do know that kids are coming back with challenges, that they’re adjusting. There are behavior issues and our programs are noting that, that families have lived through a stressful time and of course, that impacts kids,” Harlick said.

The programs also provided connections to support services including assistance for food, rent and mental health support, Thorsteinson said.

The Big Lift was launched in 2012 and is a public-private partnership of San Mateo County, the San Mateo County Office of Education, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and has served more than 10,000 children. Its four pillars are providing high-quality preschool and summer learning, reducing absenteeism and increasing family engagement.

julia@smdailyjournal.com

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