SPIN Girls COVID-19 Response

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have shifted our programming to keep our students, mentors, and staff safe and to support our students and their families as best we can. Here’s some of the work we’ve done:

Events

We have moved our monthly events to a virtual setting. Once a month, we have a Field Day or a Lab Day. Normally, we would visit a site or meet in person to create projects, but due to social distancing requirements, we can no longer do that. In order to adjust, our Program Manager (PM) planned an entirely new virtual Field Day for April 18th. She reached out to families to ask students what they wanted to learn about, and they voted for a pandemic curriculum. One parent expressed that she would only feel comfortable with a pandemic curriculum if it was uplifting and positive rather than more anxiety-inducing content. As a result, our PM wrote a Field Day agenda that included the following:

•  A virtual escape room to break the ice after two months apart;

• Check-in questions for mentors and mentees to ask each other to see how everyone is doing mentally, emotionally, academically, and physically;

• A chance to find uplifting and heartwarming stories that have come out of the coronavirus situation to remind everyone of positive sides to the situation;

• A non-fear mongering lesson on pandemics;

• An infectious disease simulation for students to take on roles in identifying an infectious disease outbreak;

• Numerous opportunities to take a screen break and to participate in a mindfulness activity;

• And a look at the positive things that have come out of this pandemic (impact on pollution, communities coming together, etc.) to end the lesson on a positive note.

In addition to this virtual Field Day, we created project kits to send to the students so that they can still complete their Capstone Project. When our PM checked in with our families, she asked if they would want a physical project to work on to offer a break from online learning. The answer was a resounding yes. This kit included the supplies needed for the project but also had a personalized note and a treat to have during our virtual Lab Day on May 16th to mimic the snacks and food we would provide them at an in person Lab Day. Our Capstone Presentation on June 20th will also be held virtually and students will receive special kits from us for that event as well. As we do not know how long social distancing measures will be in place, we are planning multiple versions of our July Retreat - online, socially distanced, and in-person.

Family Support

To support our families in this switch to online learning, we offered to loan them technology supplies. We provided a family with a laptop, mouse, and a wifi hotspot so that they could participate in online learning. Our PM also sends out resources to our families to help them navigate online learning and to help them get the supplies they need to get through the pandemic. 

Additionally, we have broadened the permissible use of SPIN Girls Scholarship funds to include basic needs such as groceries, rent, and utilities in order to support families struggling to make ends meet as a result of the outbreak. 

Program & Curriculum Improvement:

During this shift, we have continued our work with Crux Consulting to create surveys we can use to gauge program efficacy and make program adjustments. Though this situation makes testing and administering our surveys more difficult, we still plan on continuing with our regular timeline to pilot the surveys with our Epic Cohort this spring (virtually), making adjustments based on their feedback to be able to start administering the surveys in full at the beginning of our next program year. 

Whether our July Retreat happens in person or virtually, we still plan on asking the girls to provide input on this year’s program and curriculum to improve and to plan next year’s program. If we do not get to see the girls in person, we may get fewer responses, which could impact our ability to make the most effective curriculum changes. 

Remaining Uncertainties

We do not yet know how this situation will impact our mentor and student recruitment for next year. As of right now, this disruption hinders our plans to host a recruitment event at the beginning of June, but we are trying to make an online version that we can still advertise through PeachJar and other online sources. However, it is hard to say exactly what we are offering because we do not know if a second wave of the virus will hit in the fall, leading us to social distancing once again. Our PM will do her best to account for this possibility in advertising the program, but we cannot predict how this will impact volunteers’ desire to mentor or students’ desire to participate. 

Responding to COVID-19

The world has changed inexorably in the first quarter of 2020. In this uncertain time, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced everyone working in education to reinvent education itself. At schools, this looks like teachers and administrators figuring out how to provide extended education for all of their students. Within human services, this looks like trying to get rental assistance, food, and unemployment benefits to families in their time of great need. For out of school time providers like SPIN, this looks like delivering online classes, lending out technology to families in need, and reinventing the future of our programs to support the current and future needs of the families we serve.

We have thousands of brilliant children experiencing summer slide before the school year is even over - not through any fault of their teachers or their families, but due to the systemic inequities that have resulted in income and racial disparities, laid even more bare by this crisis. SPIN is working around the clock to retool our programs to respond to community needs, while at the same time anticipating how we can support our families and educators when we are able to reconvene. We are anticipating a huge need for our STEM+Arts programs in the summer, and are working on ways to expand the academic portions of our classes to support areas where educators anticipate needing support.

If you are able, please consider supporting our work with a critical financial donation at this time.

If you are a caregiver, here are some resources we've found. We will continue to update this page as the situation progresses.

If you are an out of school time provider, a teacher or a school administrator, please contact us and let us know what you are doing to support families and learning and let's work together in this defining moment.

In health,
The SPIN Team

SPIN Girls are Movie Stars!

Check out this video highlighting the amazing work of our girls, mentors and staff over the first year of SPIN Girls. If you know a young lady interested in STEM or want to be the mentor you with you had, register for our 2019 cohort!

Lifting Our Girls for the Holidays

Happy Holidays, everyone! We here at SPIN are taking some well deserved time off until January 2nd. But we did want to share a big shout out and thank you to Echodyne, a STEAM powered company in Kirkland that adopted SPIN Girls for their holiday giving tree. Together, the team at Echodyne raised more than $300 for SPIN Girls - a contribution that will ensure that the girls will be able to use the highest quality materials over the course of their program. THANK YOU Echodyne!

Summer 2018 STEM Paths

SPIN paved many new STEM Paths over the summer - working with families across our region to strengthen minds and strengthen bodies. Before the holidays set in, we wanted to reflect on the work we did over the summer and the families we served.

SMARTi Summer Math Boost students and their fearless leader, Shana

John Muir Elementary School: At John Muir, SPIN partnered with Seattle Public Schools’ Summer Staircase. In the morning, 120 students from across SE Seattle worked on improving their math and reading skills. In the afternoon, SPIN came in and provided 6 fun classes that each student got to cycle through - Robotics, Video Game Design, and 3D Printing on the STEM side, and 3 movement classes that kept bodies moving. We got great feedback from the school about how well run this program was - and it was our very first time offering classes at this scale! Thanks JMES team.

Dunlap Summer Math Boost: At Dunlap, we worked with school staff to develop a four week, 6 hour/day summer math boost, including working on math skills, doing experiential math movement activities, and learning through project-based STEM classes. Over 90% of our students improved their math skills over the course of our program.

Washington Middle and Mercer Middle Schools: At Washington and Mercer, we taught girl-focused video game design classes, in preparation for the launch of SPIN Girls in the Fall of 2018.