Ascension Catholic Academy (ACA) is a consortium of Catholic schools serving highly diverse neighborhoods in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. Ascension Catholic School, St. John Paul II Catholic School, and St. Peter Claver Catholic School primarily serve scholars who come from diverse backgrounds, with a vast majority in need of additional academic and social support. We use strategic planning and partnerships, on-going review of best practices, and extensive data to move our scholars forward more than one grade level in one school year. Who we serve: ACA Enrollment: 525 Qualifies for Free Reduced Lunch: 75%; Students of Color: 95%; ELL 29%; Catholic: 47%; Our summer SLAM program serves children K-8 six weeks in June and July, providing a full day of educational programming during critical summer months when our scholars can lose up to three months of academic progress. In these unprecedented times, our mission as a parish and a school has never been more critical.
The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized how our families’ connection to our schools is more urgent than ever. We spent the summer months planning for various scenarios, always building around our pledge to reach Every Child, Every Day, paying extra attention to our most vulnerable scholars. We realized that our impact on helping the families in our community goes beyond academics, and as a Christ-centered organization, we need to assist them in areas beyond academics. We set up a crisis helpline for our families to call for any assistance, and with the help of our community partners, we began a fund to help our many families — more than 50% — who had lost jobs and income. COVID demonstrated that assisting families in the communities we serve goes beyond the rigorous academics in our schools. We need to and will always provide unparalleled care for scholars. Our ability to assist our families in so many ways is only made possible with the generous support of our community partners and individual donors who provide 90% of our schools' core funding and the entire family’s well-being.
Volunteers are vital to the success of our Ascension Catholic Academy Scholars. During SLAM, Volunteers support Teachers in the classroom, provide Recess and Lunch Supervision, Chaperone weekly field trips, engage in outdoor activities with Scholars, and assist with creative projects and games in our After School Program. Volunteers serve to enhance academic progress and provide a meaningful presence in the lives of our Scholars. For information on volunteering with SLAM, please contact: Margaret Conroy, Volunteer Manager Ascension Catholic Academy at mconroy@acamn.org or 763.760.3928 Cell Phone).
You can also support the program financially - CLICK HERE.
Our Summer SLAM program gives scholars benefits to our scholars AND their parents.In addition to a boost academically, SLAM is vital to our scholars in other ways. The neighborhoods where many of our scholars live, North Minneapolis in particular, face a significant crime that only intensifies in the summer months. For many of the families in the communities we serve, summer care is impossible for families. Without the opportunity to attend SLAM, kids might end up participating in gang activity and hanging in the streets. Parents are incredibly grateful to have their children spend most of the days in a safe, caring, and learning environment. SLAM allows our parents to keep working in the summer and guarantees two healthy meals a day for our scholars. We provide a healthy breakfast and lunch to each of our scholars and send home prepackaged healthy snacks for the families. You can experience a few minutes of SLAM by CLICKING HERE.