School & Main in the news, Youth Today

In the January/February 2014 edition of Youth Today, School & Main’s Andy Beck contributed a piece on creating collaborative systems that support young people.  Beyond Paper Partnerships: Building Deep Community Collaboration describes Andy’s’, and School & Main’s professional journey working with community organizations successfully.  Six lessons learned over the 25 years of working in the field. Take a look...

 

Real Partnerships, Real Change!

On November 21st, in a unique partnership, School & Main Institute joined with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education Child and Youth Readiness Cabinet, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Wraparound Zone Initiative, the Coalition for Community Schools, and the Massachusetts Full Service Schools Roundtable, to present ”Real Partnerships - Real Change.” This one day training event, with over 200 participants, focused on the critical need and challenges we all have in working collaboratively to support the needs of our young people today. Participants represented a diverse cross-section of civic, community, education, and youth organizations.

Andy Beck, SMI’s Executive Director helped frame the day with his presentation on ”Developing Powerful Partnerships” .  SMI staff facilitated additional workshops on “Partnership 101”, “Collaborator Confessions - What Works, What Doesn’t and Why” and “Partners and Parent Engagement.”

Other Featured topics included:

• Systemic Partnership Efforts
• Targeting Resources to Support Student Success
• Tackling Chronic Absenteeism Issues

Special guests included Hedy Chang, from Attendance Works, and Massachusetts Secretaries of Education, Matthew Malone, and Health and Human Services, John Polanowicz.

New England Training Series | January 29, 2014

Cutting-edge coursework for people who make a difference for youth and their communities.

Produced by School & Main Institue

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

8:30am sign-in.  Courses run from 9:00am - 12:30pm

Sheraton Framingham Hotel and Conference Center

Course Descriptions

 Four courses offered, which will help make your Community Effort Successful by:

• Focusing on HOW to get your work done
• Providing you a forum to SHARE IDEAS and CREATE SOLUTIONS with input from others
• Aiding in creating LONG-LASTING community wide strategies

Registration

• Register and select your course online at www.schoolandmain.org/trainingseries
• Registration Deadline: Wednesday, January 22, 2014
• Register early!  Space is limited.  We will accept registrations and course selection on a first come, first served basis.

Cost

• Endorsing Partner Discounted Rate: $99.00 (partner code required)
• Regular rate: $129
• Registration fee covers your participation in one course, continental breakfast, and all course materials for your session.

Download event flyer here

"Today's Vision, Tomorrow's Reality" | SMI speaks at Mentoring Conference

SMI’s Lori Norris Jordon spoke at the 2013 Northeast Regional Youth Mentoring Conference, held in Hartford, CT, where over 250 practitioners, researchers, and other mentoring stakeholders were brought together.  This year’s conference theme, “Today’s Vision, Tomorrow’s Reality”, brought to the forefront a greater focus on the future outcomes and impact that a caring adult can bring into the life of a young adult.

Lori’s presentation, “Graduation Guru, A City-School-Community Coalition” recommended a step-by-step unique approach that will create sustainable adult advocate systems across the community that can inspire a young person to realize their strengths and achieve their fullest potential. 

“Every young person can benefit from having a caring adult in their life. This is especially true for those who struggle academically, socially and emotionally. While academic mentors provide tremendous value to youth who are struggling academically, we also need adults who focus on the social-emotional needs of students. Gurus are members of the community who are invested in youth and their future. In order to offer this kind of support communities must have a systemic way to tap into the assets and availability of a set of adults readily available when called upon to provide this critical intervention.”  No small task, yet something we all can do when we create partnership approaches to youth issues.

Learning & Leadership Exchange

On October 1, 2013, SMI facilitated a statewide Leadership & Learning Exchange. ” No Turnaround Without Wraparound”  which included opportunities for school staff, community partners, government officials and related efforts to focus on systemic strategies that deal successfully with the non-academic barriers kids have to learning. This inspiring set of leaders (including Dr. Alan Ingram, Deputy Commissioner of MA ESE, Eric Gordon, CEO/Superintendent of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District,  Joshua Laplante, Principal of Central Falls High School in Rhode Island and Ross Levanto, Senior Vice President at Schwartz Communications in Boston) provided practical examples, challenging ideas, and a critical focus on improving performance for students across Massachusetts.