ASAP/After School Activities Partnerships

When asked what ASAP’s Philadelphia Scholastic Chess League means to them, our chess students didn’t hesitate:

• “It would kill my drive for this club if I didn’t have the league.”

• “I wouldn’t be playing chess.”

• “My ambition would have died.”

A highlight of the ASAP Chess program, the league has eight tournaments annually for youth in grades K-12. By supporting the league, your gift helps hundreds of Philly public and charter students to:

💖 Build community with likeminded peers from across the city (“Through ASAP, I’ve also formed a lot of connections and met a lot of people I get along with. It’s also helped me a lot as these people have also supported me.”)

⚡ Explore their passions and discover what they’re capable of (“Everyone here wants to get better. Everyone here cares deeply about the game, spends a lot of time outside of club hours just playing on their own, researching, watching YouTube videos, reading whole books.”)

🌱 Cultivate a growth mindset (“The huge change from freshman year to now, it’s like a complete 180. We’re confident that we can play top ten individually, for at least three of our players, in the league. And that was a big change compared to freshman year where I’m not confident that we would have gotten top 15.”)

💪 Develop as leaders (“The exposure to the league and a whole different kind of league, that was the year where I was put more as the captain role and was able to more take charge with a little more ambition to this team.”)

When you support ASAP, you’re supporting the positive development, friendships, and JOY of hundreds of our Scholastic league players—and thousands more ASAP students throughout Philadelphia! Help us raise $80,000 this spring to ensure more of our kids have access to fun, high-quality after school & summer programs that spark a passion, boost career readiness, and provide a safe community.

Donate today: https://phillyasap.org/donate/

Enrollment is open for ASAP Summer Speech Academy!

Open to all Philadelphia students in grades 3-12, Speech Academy is a free, week-long camp where students learn how to advocate for the issues that matter to them. Students learn how to research, write, and deliver an original persuasive speech, and compete in a culminating speech tournament.

The camp will run July 20 - 24 from 9 AM to 2 PM at George Washington Carver High School. Breakfast and lunch are included 🧇🍎 SEPTA cards are also available if needed.

Aftercamp (also free!) is optional and will be from 2 - 5 PM. Activities include Drama, art, and Scrabble 🎭🎨🔠

Thank you to Cooke & Bieler for making Summer Speech Academy possible ❤️

To register, visit bit.ly/speechacademy26. For more information, email [email protected] ☀️

SEPTA provides free fare for Philly public school students—but the passes can only be used during the school year, on school days between 5:30 am and 8 pm, and if the student lives 1.5 miles or more from their school. This limits the ability of 30,000+ students across the city to participate in internships, jobs, and afterschool activities. At ASAP, we spend hundreds of dollars on SEPTA passes each year (and thousands on bussing!) to ensure students can attend our events for free, but not all organizations are able to provide this support.

Recognizing the connection between transportation access and student opportunity, ASAP is proud to support Transit Forward Philly, an organization working with community and City Council members to implement free universal fares for all Philadelphia public school students. As supporter Councilmember Rue Landau has said, universal fares would mean "the ability to take advantage of all that our city has to offer. It means that kids can grow up here in Philadelphia with everything they need to thrive." ❤️