A new school year is just weeks away. But that doesn't mean that many kids haven't been learning over the summer. A group of students in Binghamton attended their final day of the city's Summer Literacy Program Friday. Our Melissa Kakareka tells us more about the benefits of the program.

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BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Emmanuel Nzsi says he loves to read. He discovered a new book to put among his favorites this summer.

"The fifth Percy Jackson. It's the last one out of all of them. It's my favorite because it's action packed," said Nzsi.

Nzsi is one of about 60 students that participated in Binghamton's Summer Literacy Program at Horace Mann Elementary School this summer. The six week pilot program was a collaboration between the city, the Binghamton School District and the Binghamton Neighborhood Project with the goal of helping kids maintain their reading skills over the summer. Activities ranged from reading and writing to arts and crafts as well as math and computer games.

"There is a growing need to keep kids involved in education. One of the things we do see is kids get to a certain point in June and they stop and then in September, they are three months backwards, so we'd like to see them not necessarily grow their skills but at least sustain," said Literacy Program Coordinator Suzanne Souza.

Coordinators say the program also taught the kids some positive life skills.

"Back in February, we were all identifying issues surrounding the Horace Mann School neighborhood, we've seen a rise in a lot of delinquent behavior with youth. It was decided the best thing to do is to increase their social network and positive influences around their neighborhood and put that energy in a positive direction," said Coordinator of the Binghamton Neighborhood Project Rick Kauffman.

Making it a program that those involved hope to continue in the future.