Closing the Achievement Gap

A key path out of poverty is a quality education. Yet too many young people in the Bay Area, particularly people of color, do not have the opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge they need for success in life and in today’s competitive economy.

Since its founding in 1953, the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund has been an active supporter of programs that provide young people with important life skills. The Fund has played a major role in the growth of the youth development field in the Bay Area. For example:

• The Fund was a co-founder of (and continues to play an active part in) the San Francisco Beacon Initiative, a partnership with the City’s school district, Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, and others. The initiative has created eight vibrant community centers, housed in San Francisco public schools, that offer after-school classes, academic tutoring, sports programs and other services to nearly 5,300 participants each year.

• The Fund helped launch Team-Up for Youth which uses sports as a vehicle to help transform the lives of young people. With continuing support from the Fund and other partners, Team-Up for Youth is breaking down barriers and increasing access for thousands of low-income girls and boys throughout the state to have quality sports opportunities.

• The Fund played a significant role in helping to shape the implementation of the After School Education and Safety Act, which provides $550 million of state after-school funding, to ensure that this major new funding serves the students who need it most and addresses program quality.

Today, the Haas, Jr. Fund is building on this body of work and exploring new ways to level the playing field and expand educational opportunities for children and young adults. We are currently focused on an emerging public-private partnership in San Francisco aimed at closing the achievement gap by grade three. The partnership is developing a community school approach that integrates high quality preschool and elementary school learning. We are also continuing to explore how to increase academic success and completion rates of community college students in the Bay Area.

In the last five years, from 2005-2009, the Fund has made grants of more than $16 million to improve the life chances for succees of young people in our community ($12.1 million in the field of youth development and $4.1 million  since 2008 in education opportunities).

In addition, the Fund made a $16 million grant to the University of California, Berkeley in 2009 to support a comprehensive initiative designed to create a more equitable and inclusive university.