Saturday Place

🎓Here’s a first look at our 2026 graduation ceremony!

All of us at Saturday Place are very proud of our 4th grade graduates and are extremely excited to see where their success in the Saturday Place program takes them!

Thanks to our Saturday Place parents, teachers, and donors for making this school year a success!

More highlights to come shortly!

🎓Here’s a first look at our 2026 graduation ceremony!

All of us at Saturday Place are very proud of our 4th grade graduates and are extremely excited to see where their success in the Saturday Place program takes them!

Thanks to our Saturday Place parents, teachers, and donors for making this school year a success!

More highlights to come shortly!

🎓Graduation is 10 days away! Help support our students graduating this Spring!

On May 30th, our 4th grade students will graduate from the Saturday Place program, marking the end of an incredible journey filled with growth, resilience, and achievement. Many have achieved significant academic growth, while also developing social-emotional skills that will guide them far beyond the classroom.

But graduation is a beginning. As our students take their next steps, your support can help ensure they continue to thrive. Donations make it possible for us to:

📍Provide high-quality academic programming for future students
📍Offer enrichment experiences that inspire curiosity and confidence
📍Support families and build strong school partnerships
📍Continue empowering young learners who need it most

Your gift today is an investment in a child’s future.
As we celebrate this year’s graduating class, we invite you to stand with them to honor for their hard work and help open doors to even greater opportunities ahead.

Saturday Place has real, proven benefits. Our students not only improve their academic performance, but maintain their improvements as they advance through higher grades.

Our students may arrive performing as the lowest in their classroom, however by the end of the academic year, our students minimally demonstrate:

📍Over 45% improvement in writing
📍Over 5% improvement in spelling
📍Over 10% improvement in reading comprehension
📍Over 20% improvement in math

An independent program evaluation of Saturday Place by Loyola University School of Education identified a wide range of benefit for students including:

– Improved academic performance and academic self-sufficiency.
– Student development in key social-emotional learning domains.
– Greater reading and math growth on national standardized tests among program alumni in 5th and 6th grades.
– Increased desire among students to attend college.
– Improved relationship skills at home and in school.
– Cultivation of a healthy sense of self-awareness and self-esteem.

On Saturday, May 2nd, we were thrilled to welcome a special guest, Patsy’s Promise, who treated our students to a fun and memorable experience.

Through an exciting ice cream truck visit, students were rewarded with free ice cream after a morning of teamwork and also completion of our end-of-year assessment. In addition, students received a Highlight book to celebrate their efforts and accomplishments.

Thank you Patsy’s Promise for giving our students a well deserve reward for all their hard work through the school year!

This Mothers Day, we’d like to highlight the mothers of our Saturday Place students and graduates. These mothers go above and beyond by ensuring their child is ready to learn not only for the typical school week, but for the Saturday Place program every Saturday too. We appreciate your efforts to help us ensure that our students are prepared for our program and are able to successfully complete it to continue onto a more successful education.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and we’d like to thank our amazing Saturday Place teachers who do more than go above and beyond during the school week! These wonderful educators give up a part of their Saturday and their weekend to give our students the extra support that they need to be successful, which goes to prove that it just means that much more to them. Thank you teachers for all that you do day in and day out!

Today is Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. By creating a safe, nurturing, and engaging environment every Saturday, we help our students build the confidence and develop the emotional/critical thinking skills they need to thrive in their education. Every child deserves to feel seen, supported, and valued. With your help, you can help us lift up our students to their full potential and help them excel in their future endeavors.

An article by the74million.org highlights our partner school, Chavez Elementary, as an exceptional “Bright Spot” school in Illinois with our 3rd grade reading proficiency being much stronger than expected given our poverty rate. You can see this when you select our school district on the interactive map.

Thanks to Chavez Elementary for all your years of collaboration to help make sure that our students are successful in their education!!! To read the article and view the map, visit https://tinyurl.com/bdzenbyx

We’d like you to meet Principal Natasha Ortega! Ortega is the principal of Hamline Elementary School in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago. This is a new school partnership, and Hamline is in its third year with the Saturday Place program. Principal Ortega has been able to see firsthand the success of the program through the growth in student achievement and the excitement students have for learning. Thank you, Principal Ortega, for your collaboration and support of the life-changing work we provide to the students of Hamline Elementary!