Freedom School Partners Inc

General information

Freedom School Partners serves the community of Charlotte, NC by providing quality Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools® to children (called scholars) grades K-12 who most need but can least afford summer learning opportunities. Freedom Schools last six-weeks and give scholars three fundamental resources needed to develop their potential:
1. Literacy skills through six weeks of quality summer-programming 2. Social-emotional skills needed to make good decisions and 3. A community that believes in them comprised of community partners, friends, staff and volunteers.
Freedom School’s impact also extends to college students who come from universities all over the country to work as mentors, care-takers and role-models for Freedom School scholars during the duration of the summer-program. We hope to inspire these students to be advocates for children, future leaders and deepen our community’s investment in children.
Program
Freedom School Partners collaborates with community organizations, faith groups, corporations, etc. to serve and fund the scholars at various Freedom School sites across the city. In 2015, there were 19 Freedom School sites serving a total of 1,200 scholars. In addition to literacy-based learning, scholars receive two meals and a healthy snack each day as well as transportation to and from the program. They also experience a full summer of enrichment activities including visits to museums, learning new skills, swimming, career exploration and more.
Impact
Five consecutive years of independent research conducted by the University of North Carolina-Charlotte has demonstrated that the majority of Freedom School scholars gain a year in reading ability over the summer. This is compared to most low-income children who lose 2-3 months of reading ability during the summer months. With over 60,000 economically disadvantaged students in our community, there are thousands more who could benefit from Freedom Schools. Championing the cause to defeat summer learning loss and giving every child an opportunity to succeed is the core mission and vision of Freedom School Partners.
To learn more about Freedom Schools in Charlotte, NC and ways to get involved please visit us at http://freedomschoolpartners.org/ .