School’s Out Washington works to break down barriers to funding for on-the-ground organizations and create opportunities for community-led programming.
School’s Out Washington partners with public and private entities to invest resources in communities where inequities are most pervasive. Through grant facilitation and other initiatives, we help expand access to and improve quality for expanded learning programs that predominantly serve BIPOC, LGBTQ, migrant/immigrant, youth experiencing homelessness, and youth in poverty.
Our grant-making efforts and special initiatives are rooted in the belief that these programs—and the dedicated people who run them—have the knowledge to best support youth in their communities. Our role at SOWA is to elevate their work and support their leadership through funding and quality improvement services.
In 2017, King County’s Best Starts for Kids (BSK) and School’s Out Washington began their partnership to implement the Quality Out-of-School Time strategy. This strategy funds organizations that provide access to consistent, high quality and culturally relevant summer and after school programming to underserved communities and geographies.
Together, with extensive community and stakeholder involvement and input, SOWA and King County designed an investment strategy with these two funding models: Place-Based Partnerships and People of Color-Led Organizations.
Feed Your Brain provides funding and training to schools, community-based organizations, and tribes running summer literacy programs, while also connecting them to federal funding for nutritious summer meals.
We’ve supported more than 175 summer literacy programs benefiting approximately 20,000 children since 2001.
Learn moreThe Refugee School Impact Program (RSIP) is a federal grant administered by SOWA that provides funding and support to school districts serving refugee populations in Washington.
RSIP fosters partnerships between community organizations and school districts to better serve refugee students.
Continue readingThe Washington Youth Development Nonprofit Relief Fund was made possible by the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) and was led by School’s Out Washington working closely with the Washington State Department of Commerce.
This one-time investment of $9.4 million was awarded to 441 youth development organizations.
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