Partnerships for a healthy summer
Healthy Summer 2007 is a “private-public partnership providing educational programs, healthy meals and fun activities each summer for Lowell’s Youth.” They’ve been around since 1996, but this year they have an excellent brochure that was mailed out listing everything there is to do in Lowell in the summer, from pool schedules to free lunches to concerts. They also had a fun kick-off party on Tuesday at the JFK Civic Center with food, face painting, crafts and a D.J. We all know that private-public partnerships are one of Lowell’s strengths, but there is always the fear that services are overlapping, that groups aren’t talking to one another. The Healthy Summer brochure puts those fears to rest. You can see that the Lowell School Department, the Pollard Library, Community Teamwork (CTI), Lowell Parks & Rec, Girls Inc., the YMCA, the YWCA, the Boys & Girls Club, the Girl Scouts, and many of Lowell’s museums are on the same page, literally. Budget cuts have forced the school department to continually whittle away at its after-school and summer programs, with a bare minimum remaining. But this brochure shows us that some of our non-profits are taking up the slack and providing meaningful and fun experiences for Lowell’s youth population this summer. In addition, free breakfasts and lunches for young people are being provided at many different locations across the city through CTI and the Merrimack Valley Food Bank. For more information, contact Allison Carroll, Coordinator of Youth Services at 978-970-3342.