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The U.S. Department of Education and its partners United Way Worldwide, National PTA, SEDL, and Harvard Family Research Project

invite you to participate in the fifth installment of this webinar series:

Building Strategic Partnerships to Foster Community Engagement in Education

February 9, 2011, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. (EST) View Webinar Archive

Strategic community partnerships are a key component of systemic family, school, and community engagement in education. These partnerships draw on the strengths of community groups as they surround students with an array of supports to enhance learning and prepare them for the 21st century. Strategic partnerships also create a culture of communication with each other and with families and schools to ensure the services they provide meet the needs of their communities.

This webinar will examine practical examples of how to build successful strategic partnerships that foster community engagement, including how to select the organizations, people, and services to be included; how to structure communications to ensure ongoing collaboration; and how to build connections with families and schools.

We will hear from a Promise Neighborhood grantee about the program’s vision and how it is forming partnerships to support students from birth through college and career preparation, from The Children’s Aid Society about why the community school model promotes strong families and successful students, and from the United Way of Lake County, Illinois about a community engagement planning process to ensure on-time high school graduation. The U.S. Department of Education’s Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships will also speak about what the initiative is doing to sponsor deliberate and ongoing partnerships.

Presenters include:

• Moderator: Lindsay Torrico, Manager, Public Policy, United Way Worldwide
• Reverend Brenda Girton-Mitchell, Director, Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, U.S. Department of Education
• Jane Quinn, Director, National Center for Community Schools, The Children’s Aid Society
• Irasema Salcido, Founder, Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy, Promise Neighborhood Grantee
• Helen Westmoreland, Director of Program Quality, Flamboyan Foundation
• Michelle Mittler Crombie, Vice President of Community Development, United Way of Lake County, Illinois