St. Gabriel´s Episcopal Church

Goal: $3,000.00

Specific Need

St. Gabriel's~San Gabriel's Give Choose 2024 funds will be used for the expansion of the free Educando con Amor community education programming for children and youth at the Sterling and Leesburg Community Centers, where we provide opportunities for children of all socio-economic circumstances to thrive and learn new skills in a safe environment.

During the school calendar year, we will provide the following classes and programs: drone control training, LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robotic programming, Scratch and Java coding, software development on the Arduino platform, 3D printing, digital and conventional art, choral singing, folkloric dance classes, science lab, and web design.

In the summer, we will increase the STEAM summer camp offerings from 2 weeks to 9 weeks in July & August. The increase in summer programs will continue to help close the gap left in Loudoun County by the closing of Inmed Partnerships for Children in 2023. Our offerings will help boost the confidence and equip children and adolescents to apply & successfully participate in LCPS PROPEL & Level Up programs. The goal of PROPEL is to “support 4^th & 5^th grade students, and of Level Up to support 6^thto 8^th graders to address equity through enrichment for high-achieving students underrepresented in STEM fields” (https://www.lcps.org – Propel and Level Up). Forming children in STEM gives them a path to qualify and succeed at specialized high schools like the Academies of Loudoun & the Thomas Jefferson HS for Science & Technology.

Mission

The mission of St. Gabriel’s~San Gabriel's Community Education Programming is to help underserved children and youth flourish, prosper, and gain self-confidence through engaging and interesting educational opportunities.

St. Gabriel’s~San Gabriel's community education programming is one of our faith community's social justice arms and open to people of all beliefs or no belief; our community education programs have no religious character, they are not intended to proselytize, and they are offered free of charge for all participants in Loudoun County.

We partner with the following organizations in the delivery of our programs: The National Institutes of Health, Irene Saucedo Dance Studio, Jerien Okoh-Tisch Music Studio, the Sterling Community Center, and the Douglass Community Center. The mission of St. Gabriel’s~San Gabriel Episcopal Church is to: “Encounter God, build meaningful relationships, and make a difference in the world.” We are on target with our mission through Educando con Amor!

Profile

The impact of St. Gabriel’s~San Gabriel's community education increases the public health of residents in our county by providing education, justice, equity, awareness, and dignity to financially underserved children and youth. Part of the social justice component includes inviting participants who may be financially underserved to have a leg-up in life through education. The spaces we use are safe, familiar, and accessible to neighbors so that they feel comfortable attending the programs.

Accessibility: Our programs are delivered where the most financially vulnerable residents of Loudoun County live. Accessibility to services enhances the public health of a community and education in all forms impacts not only the participant but successive generations thereafter. Therefore, our community education programs have a positive impact on our participants lives and of the community at large.