A Community-Wide Focus on Education
Did you know there are two great community initiatives underway focused on education priorities in Grinnell? One is the Campaign for Grade Level Reading which is aimed at preparing all kids to read at their grade level by third grade. The second is the Sills Gap Initiative which is focused on preparing graduates with the skills needed in the workforce.
Both of these initiatives are receiving extra support and manpower this year through the Grinnell AmeriCorps Partnership, a year-long program that places AmeriCorps service members at a variety of host sites throughout the community. Grinnell College is administering the AmeriCorps grant and serving as the backbone organization for this program.
There are currently eight AmeriCorps service members focusing on these two initiatives. Each service member is responsible for leading a task force of community members and launching a pilot project related to their action area. The additional support of the service members will help our community grow capacity and further the efforts of both initiatives.
Action areas include Summer Learning, School Readiness, Healthy Readers, Skills Gap, Family & Community Engagement, Volunteer Infrastructure, Afterschool Enrichment, and Summer Learning Programming. Each action area now has an AmeriCorps member leading it, and there are task forces to help with each. If you are interested in joining a task force or would like more information about how to get involved, please let me know and I will connect you.
Our schools need the support of our entire community, which is why our organization is participating in this effort. It is important that these efforts continue because they will strengthen our community and prepare our future workforce. We are a host site for the Family & Community Engagement AmeriCorps member, who just began working with us a week ago. Jacob will be busy developing marketing plans and communication strategies that support the efforts of all of the task forces, so he has a big job ahead!
- Emily Counts
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