SUMMER EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM RESEARCH

Research has proven that a student’s educational retention declines over the summer months. Many parents, especially those with the financial means, support and supplement their child’s education with summer educational and cultural programs. Pittsburgh’s educational and cultural scenes provide a wealth of summer opportunities for local students. However, based on our October 2008 research project, there seems to be a disparity in the participation and access to these programs for low income/minority students. This disparity may have a causal relationship with the current "achievement gap" that already exists between low income/minority students and students who are from moderate to high income families.

Our research also determined that within Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas offer a number of great educational programs and summer camps for children and teen-agers, however, these programs were never all neatly organized into one source...until now!

We created a ’one stop shop’ for parents to search information from multiple organizations regarding Pittsburgh summer camps and kids programs:

www.PittsburghKidsPrograms.org

a Web site designed especially to assist parents and children of the Southwestern PA area..

This Web site will also be utilized to highlight and promote the following PII programs:

• We have established a number of programs to help decrease the summer “achievement gap” and alleviate the some of the financial issues faced by Pittsburgh families.
  
  
• The Scholarship Assistance Program – An advisory program established to assist parents with the camp scholarship application process. Furthermore, we help lessen the obstacles of transportation and meals (for low-income parents.)
  
  
• Community Outreach Program – This is designed to bring educational outreach opportunities to community centers in distressed neighborhoods, and qualified public housing facilities.
  

*Please keep in mind that PittsburghKidsPrograms.org and Policy Innovations Institute, Inc. are not responsible for the claims or services provided by any of the camps or programs listed on the above Web site. This Site is for informational purposes only; please conduct your own investigation as to whether a camp or program is a suitable match for your child. Thank you!

PROJECT 2211

Project 2211 is a unique public-private partnership which allows significant investment in blighted urban neighborhoods using a consortium of smaller developers working in conjunction with Policy Innovations Institute and government. This innovative partnership utilizes both public and private dollars to rehabilitate vacant, blighted properties. This project infuses private capital into many areas that have been notoriously neglected. The City of Pittsburgh, along with Allegheny County, is inundated with numerous vacant, dilapidated properties in blighted areas. Many of these properties have been this way for years. They are not just an eyesore to the community, but also a safety hazard. Both the city and the county continually lose much needed tax revenue while these properties sit vacant. The cost to develop many of these properties outweighs the benefit; therefore providing no incentive for developers to invest their own capital in these blighted areas.

Note: Policy Innovations Institute is always searching for general contractors for upcoming renovation projects. If you have a good work history, general liability insurance, and a line of credit, you may qualify. Please go to our applications page to download a copy of the application.

CAREER COUNSELING

The Board of Directors has approved a research study on the need to create realistic, accessible career introduction programs for low and moderate income junior and senior high students. PII is partnering with local businesses and universities, to examine this problem. The goal is to make sure students are provided with accessible, realistic and in-depth career development for local occupations. In turn, they will be able to map individual career plans to achieve those occupations and henceforth remain in this area for employment.