Samara Learning Center was created by and for learners with special education needs. We offer three services 1) a Day School 2) small group and individual tutoring and 3) summer camps for students with ADHD, high functioning Autism, Learning Disabilities, School Phobia, and Trauma. Our mission is to offer programs that promote the development of academics, language, social-emotional intelligence, creative growth, and those attributes that will contribute to lifelong success. These "success attributes" include proactivity, perseverance, self-awareness, self-advocacy, and problem solving.

 

Last year, word spread throughout schools and parallel non-profits that we had secured grants that funded scholarships to our academic based program that prevents "summer slide" (the loss of information and skills a child learned during the school year)- Achievement Camp. The kiddos we serve tend to have worked twice as hard throughout the year to make the same gains their peers did.

 

Our summer programs also provide opportunities for social engagement, exploring, creating, and having summer adventures. You may know that youths have been deprived of these experiences the last few years due to Covid-19. Research from past disasters shows that disruptions have adverse impacts on children that can last into adulthood (Newkirk, 2020).

 

In the summer of 2021,  "Coby", a 13 yr old male from Bend International School was nominated for tutoring in algebra. He could not accept the scholarship however, because his single parent could not return to pick him up at 1:00pm. Due to her work schedule "Coby" needed to remain on campus until 5:00pm. Here is where you play a crucial role. Your donation can expand our outreach. As a 501c(3) non-profit, we want to offer sponsorships and access to our programs during the summer. However, we can not do it alone.

 

"Coby" circumstance is not unique. Just out of site in Deschutes County there are MANY children struggling to locate and receive the services they need. Teachers, counselors and principals tell us that behaviors in schools have ramped up since distance learning that began in 2019.  The educators at Samara Learning Center are knowledgeable as to how to utilize evidence based practices to sooth the defense mechanisms that underlay these behaviors.

 

As the sociologist Robert Putnam noted in his book, Our Kids: The American Dream In Crisis, children from low-income families receive far less opportunity than their higher-income peers and how the gap in opportunities has increased since the 1950's.The defining story of America- that by working hard one can pull oneself  up by the bootstraps is not likely to occur for youth with disproportionate trauma and stress. Please consider donating to our organization. On your behalf, we will invest in "our kids".

 

Thanks for your consideration. 

Sincerely,

Heather Chatem