BLAST - LearningWorks Biddeford

BLAST stands for Biddeford Learns Afterschool Together

The non-profit LearningWorks, based out of Portland was awarded the 21st Century Learning Center grant and partners with the Biddeford Public School District to administer it.

The 21st Century grant ensures students 2nd-5th grade that need an academic boost will be engaged in learning while having fun and exploring STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) topics. This is an optional afterschool program so we strive to make it very fun for all!

For the past 3 summers the John T. Gorman Foundation and the Sam Cohen Foundation have awarded LearningWorks a very generous grant to invite kindergarten and first grade to the summer program that serves 2nd -5th grade. The Gorman Foundation was only able to commit to a 3 year funding cycle but the Cohen Foundation has offered to continue it’s funding for the 2016 summer. We are very grateful to these foundations for funding such an important cause. Most students that do not attend a high quality summer program loose ground academically. This is called summer slide and we have data that demonstrates BLAST students avoid the summer slide and most make gains over the summer.

The summer dates have been set for July 5-August 4, 2016. Priority will be given to current BLAST students.

Contacts:
Marci Dione - Director
Email: mdionne@learningworks.me

Deb Jaime - Primary School site coordinator
Email: djaime@biddefordschooldepartment.org

Shirley St. Ours - Intermediate School site coordinator
Email: shstours@biddefordschooldepartment.org