San Francisco’s District 9 Celebrates National Summer Learning Week 2025
Every year, summer programs all around the country participate in National Summer Learning Week, hosting events that celebrate and elevate the importance of summer programs for children, youth, and working families.
In 2025, every Community-Based Organization (CBO) that is funded by the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth, and their Families (DCYF) to provide comprehensive, all-day summer programs for children and youth in grades K-8 hosted events to celebrate Summer Learning Week. Many of the events took on DCYF’s theme for Summer 2025: “In This City, Anything is Possible.”
In San Francisco, non-profit CBOs are one of the primary providers of summer programming for thousands of the City’s children and youth. These programs prevent the learning loss that can happen during the months that school is out, and they are a vital support for San Francisco’s working families, who can rely on these programs to keep their children safe, engaged in learning, and having fun throughout the summer.
San Francisco’s District 9, which includes the Mission, Bernal Heights, and Portola neighborhoods, hosted six Summer Learning Week events.
Read on to find out how summer learning was celebrated in this part of San Francisco, and learn more about these wonderful CBOs by clicking on their names
Bay Area Community Resources at Paul Revere Elementary School
Step right up to the most exciting event of the summer: the students at Paul Revere K-8 celebrated Summer Learning Week with a Summer School Carnival! Students and their families tested their aim at the ring toss, tried their luck at the duck pond, took turns on a super cool virtual reality roller coaster, and won prizes at the bean bag throw. Local food vendors and school concessions served up tasty eats to keep everyone fueled for more fun. More than just a fun event, the Summer School Carnival celebrated community, creativity, and all the amazing learning that students did throughout the year.
BVCC’s 2025 summer theme is Eco Explorers, focusing on the importance of caring for the environment, and specifically how reusing materials helps reduce waste. Their Summer Learning Week event went next level on this theme: 5th–8th grade students put their creativity to the test by designing and building an entire arcade made from recycled materials! Kinder–5th grade students got the chance to explore, play, and be inspired as they enjoyed the unique games crafted by their older peers.
This hands-on experience brought fun and innovation together, and highlighted the values of sustainability and teamwork. Let’s continue to reuse, play, and explore — the Eco Explorer way!
Family Connections Centers celebrated Summer Learning Week by hosting a fun field day! They started with yoga to wake up, followed it with a kickball game, then a capture the flag, and finally a basketball game.
Jamestown Community Center at Cesar Chavez Elementary School and Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8
Jamestown’s theme for their 2025 summer program is “JT Olympics,” and their students ran with it — literally and figuratively! — in their annual Summer Learning Week Summer Showcase. Prior to the Showcase, students selected a country, and explored its history, culture, and relationship with the Olympics, then created and performed skits in front of their families based on their research. In addition to the Showcase, students put together a Summer Arts Pop-Up Show that featured paintings, spoken word performances, and more.
Mission Graduates Flynn Elementary School Beacon at Monroe Elementary
The last day of Summer Learning Week was also the last day of the Mission Graduates summer programs at Bryant Elementary School and Flynn Elementary School. They teamed up to close out their 2025 program with a day full of yummy food and fun: snow cones, nachos, carnival games, a bouncy obstacle course, and, the highlight for many, dunking teachers in a dunk tank!
This quote from Mission Graduates’ Flynn Beacon Director Zoila Bonilla really brings it all home: “Seeing our kiddos’ smiles truly warms all of our hearts and reminds me exactly why I LOVE what I do, and more importantly, who I do it for. Every moment, every hour spent budgeting throughout the year is worth it when it leads to special memories like this.”
Mission YMCA at Hillcrest Elementary School
The Mission YMCA’s Power Scholar Academy at Hillcrest Elementary School hosted an event called “Tree of Knowledge” to celebrate Summer Learning Week. The event featured an art project that the Scholars have been working on throughout the summer, a group discussion, and an assembly to demonstrate the collective knowledge gained throughout the art project. The event taught Scholars the importance of the core values of the Power Scholars program, and how those values will help them be scholars they want to be in their educational careers.