BAYS Florida

BAYS is honored to partner with the RAYS Baseball Foundation to offer GED Scholarships to our clients in Pinellas and Pasco Counties (Circuit 6) and for the Tampa Bay Rays assistance in supporting our annual Back-to-School initiative. The Rays Community Fund Grant Program provides assistance to local nonprofits in the Tampa Bay region. Grants are awarded to help support and enhance current youth and education focused programs offered by community-based nonprofit organizations. This funding provided by the RAYS Baseball Foundation will allow us to institute a GED assistance program for our clients in Pasco, and Pinellas Counties and to assist in providing basic school supplies to the children and families that we serve. Many of the children in our JDAP program who have a long history of poor school performance are able to make a substantial change in their academic approach and performance during their engagement in JDAP. One of our biggest disappointments as an agency comes to light when we see a child change direction academically and pursue their GED only to be challenged with the inability to pay the fee to sit for the GED exam and begin down their new academic path. This assistance will allow us to help this population of children as a pilot program within our Circuit 6 offices. A portion of the funds generously provided to BAYS by the RAYS Baseball Foundation will also be used to support our agency wide back to school drive at our semi-annual meeting in August.