A Summer to Remember

JAN, 2018

A SUMMER TO REMEMBER NOVEMBER, 2021

WINGS and SAY Detroit Play Center: Making Summer Camp A Reality In The Year Of Covid-19

How Perseverance Kept Camp In Session Northeast Detroit is one of the city's most underserved and challenged neighborhoods. It’s also home to SAY Detroit Play Center (SAY Play), a motivational learning center for Detroit youth. SAY Play helps families in low-income areas overcome literacy and academic inequities by offering free meals, transportation, and enrichment programs.

Throughout the year, SAY Play offers engaging activities such as sports, robotics, art, and music, in addition to studying and working with a homework coach to inspire academic success in and out of school.

At the start of 2020, SAY Detroit Play Center staff participated in WINGS workshops and gained valuable resources and tools, training courses, and fun lessons and activities to incorporate into academic subject areas or program time through the Wings for Kids Learning Center. WINGS social emotional learning (SEL) experts also made site visits to provide additional on-the-ground support and consultation to assist with implementation and to build capacity within the SAY Play team.

1

The Challenge In May 2020, while many after school and enrichment programs for youth were canceling or postponing their plans for the summer due to the pandemic, SAY Play was doubling down on its efforts to provide a safe, fun, educational camp for kids in the Detroit area. For students reeling from the loss of in-person learning experiences, a sense of normalcy, and for some, access to consistent meals, this camp would provide much more than just a place for kids to be supervised.

Considering the critical needs of the kids in the community, SAY Play marched forward to provide academic engagement and enrichment, free meals, and a unique curriculum that addressed social events related to systemic racism and injustice.

Although camp looked different than in years past— and many children struggled with constant maskwearing, increased hand-washing routines, and social distancing—building relationships with other campers and SAY Play staff helped to lighten the heaviness that many kids were feeling.

COVID-19 was hard for me because I had to wear a mask all the time and we had to stay six feet apart."

-Nyla Theriot, age 9

Learning and Growing Together While COVID-19 would later prove to take its toll on children—socially, emotionally, and academically— more than anyone could imagine, at the time camp began adults were also coping with the trials brought on by a global pandemic. While the worries and fears of making a camp experience successful during unprecedented times were real, the decision to press forward was undisputed.

Behind the masks were the faces of the teachers, interns, and administrators who chose to seize an opportunity, be a mentor, and model the SEL skills the children so desperately needed.

Based on WINGS’ own research findings and national evidence, SEL is most successful when adults play an active role in supporting and fostering the skills that help children realize their full potential. SEL requires adults with whom youth interact to understand, model, and encourage the development of social and emotional skills, and to also create a positive and safe environment within which the skills can be practiced.

The staff at SAY Play found that modeling for the kids their own positive self-talk or calming strategies—and teaching them the fundamentals of SEL—to be extremely fulfilling as they recognized the increased need for stability and positive relationships in such uncertain times.

2 “I have enjoyed every moment of teaching these children and I am mindful that teaching them is healing myself and them as well.”

“The children at the Center gave me a beacon of hope during a time of what seems like constant calamities.”

- Nicholas Slappey, Elementary Civics/SEL Teacher

- Austin Crutchfield, Intern Coordinator

Social and Emotional Skills Partnering with WINGS and using the WINGS model, SAY Play integrated the five core competencies of social emotional learning—selfawareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decisionmaking—by weaving it into camp activities.

Throughout the six-week long period, students acquired a foundation of social emotional learning skills, giving them the language to express their emotions, identify their strengths and weaknesses, make responsible decisions, hold themselves accountable for their actions, and work together as a team. Games, activities, and SEL curriculum integrated into each day gave students the ability to better self-regulate their behavior, stay focused, and make good choices.

Camp goers reflected on their own social emotional growth and were able to internalize the lessons of SEL through journaling, poetry, shortform writing, art, and special projects while giving them an outlet to deal with their feelings, especially as they sought stability and safety in a climate of disruption. These forms of expression were compiled into a creative yearbook-style chronicle of their days together—a memento of an unprecedented time in history that will be remembered as both challenging and inspiring.

For now, we’re going to keep moving forward. I love the grown-ups here...and I just thank everybody.”

-Kamarion Jones, age 10, interviewed on August 13, 2020, the last day of camp

3

SEL When It Matters Most

In the midst of the pandemic, it was the impactful relationships between staff and kids that bolstered resilience and fortitude in the face of adversity. We now know that this loss of time with caring adults has impacted students more than anyone could foresee.

In October 2021, leading

medical organizations

declared that the pandemic

related decline in child and

adolescent mental health has

become a national

emergency stating ,“more

than 140,000 children in the

United States lost a primary

and/or secondary caregiver,

with youth of color

disproportionately

impacted.”¹

It's staggering numbers like these that have highlighted the importance of SEL curriculum in school districts across the nation.

Investing in the mental health and well-being of every child has been the mission of WINGS for the past 25 years. From the beginning, we have been committed to collecting data and engaging in research to ensure we are having a measurable impact on the kids we serve.

¹American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association

"...all of our participants and instructors brought their best selves in every day and created a memorable summer from the dust of an otherwise forgettable one.”

-Mitch Albom, Author and SAY Play Founder

We're spreading our WINGS across America through: Engaging Training Sessions

On-site & Virtual Workshops

Soar With Wings Digital SEL Resources To learn more about consultation, training, and assistance for districts, schools, and youthserving organizations, contact us at hello@wingsforkids.org.

To learn more, visit wingsforkids.org