ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — At the Shirley Proctor Fuller Foundation, their purpose is clear.
“We’re an academically based after-school and summer program where academics is the focus of everything that we do,” said academic director Keisha Snead.
“Our mission is to actually close the achievement gap for underserved students in South St. Petersburg. You see a significant gap between the performance of lower economic and honestly Black and Brown children,” said Bridgette Heller, co-founder and CEO.
Research shows that during the summer months, students typically lose about eight to 12 weeks of learning unless they participate in academic activities.
“Summer slide is real. So when they are not involved in some kind of learning for their brain that is continuously keeping it moving and growing and thinking, it is going to happen that they will regress,” said Snead.
“It’s critical. We actually got started as a summer program only. When we did that, what we found was that it was amazing to the degree in which we can prevent summer slide. Literally, 70-80% of our students avoided summer slide altogether. And then what we saw was actually we were able to have students build skills over the summer, so that was really encouraging to us,” said Heller.
Although that’s how the Shirley Proctor Puller Foundation got started, now they serve students year-round.
“This foundation is crucially important because it is targeting a tragic gap in American education, that children who most depend on a good education from the public schools are being less and less well served,” said Vivian Fueyo, USF professor emerita, childhood education expert, and chair of education committee for the SPPF Board.
“Children and their families who are not succeeding in the public schools come to a targeted academic after-school program,” she added.
When kids come to the foundation, they take a diagnostic test to see where they’re at. Then, they get placed in groups depending on their abilities, regardless of grade level.
"To fill in those gaps or those things that are missing to get them to where they are going. It helps them have a level playing field with their counterparts in the classroom that they deal with each and every day," said Snead.
It’s working.
“We started this school year with about 19-20% of our children performing at grade level. When we ended the school year, we were at 55% of our kids performing at grade level. So that’s a very significant improvement,” said Heller.
What’s special about this place, though, is more than academics. It’s the environment, too.
“Children cannot get past the door without a welcoming hug, 'Aren't we glad that you’re here?' and people who listen to them,” said Fueyo.
“Just to see them get so excited when they come through that door, it does my heart good,” said Snead.
Teachers are not only improving students’ abilities, they’re also building their confidence.
“The truth is what we really see happen is that the children know that they’re not getting all of the instruction. They understand that they are not comprehending everything or that they’re maybe a little bit behind, that they’re missing some of it. When they start to get it, their confidence increases so tremendously,” said Heller.
“I feel grateful every day because I was raised by parents who taught me that the most important thing that they could instill in me was a love of education because it’s the only thing that nobody can take away. So when I see charming, lovely, bright, capable young scholars and their families who haven’t necessarily gotten that message whether at home or at school, then I feel mission-driven to teach them,” said Fueyo.
Right now, the group is bursting at the seams and already split between two locations as they work to try to meet the growing demand to help kids learn successfully.
Leaders told ABC Action News they hope to be able to expand to serve as many students in South St. Pete as possible.
“I would love to see us in our own facility. So that when you drive up, it says, 'Shirley Proctor Puller M.A.S.T.R. Kids Foundation,' and it is ours, and the kids are all over the building. All ages, grades, all under one roof," said Snead.
“Right now, we serve about 200 kids annually. We’d love to move up and serve about 500 kids. That’ll take expansion, but we won’t expand without quality, so it takes a real balance, right?” said Heller.
For more information about SPPF and how you can support its mission, click here.
“I think that the other key thing that works for us and our program that makes it really special is that we engage the parents. We are all from the community. Everyone, almost to a person, in terms of the teachers and the administrators, they’re all from this community or have some connection to this community. Even our board members you’ll see have a connection with either education with the community in some way. We’re all very vested. So, as a result, we generate huge trust from parents and from partners,” said Heller.
