COMMUNITY EDUCATION
The Community Education Initiative integrates comprehensive family support and educational programming that has lasting transformative impacts on students, families, schools, and neighborhoods.
WHAT WE DO
Our innovative approach combines the Essentials for Community Schools Transformation to transform schools into places where educators, local community members, families, and students work together to ensure Flint kids thrive. They include:
Integrated systems of support
Our dedicated site teams work with school staff and community partners to intentionally and systematically coordinate services, support, and opportunities that foster student, family, and community success.
Powerful student and family engagement
We partner with students and families as key decision-makers in shaping the school’s environment, priorities, and partnerships. Through the Flint Parent Collaborative and Student Advisory Councils, students’ and families’ lived experiences inform our approaches to student, school, and community success.
Expanded and enriched learning opportunities
Our afterschool, lunchtime, weekend, and summer programs provide expanded time, expanded staffing, and expanded opportunities for learning and engagement. The Thrive Afterschool initiative provides academic enrichment, extracurricular activities, and individualized support, giving students the opportunity to explore their passions, dive deeper into the application of academic content, and strengthen their knowledge and skills.
A culture of belonging, safety, and care
We work with and within schools to ensure schools become places that are grounded in healthy relationships, in which members feel safe and comfortable navigating conflicts and taking risks. Our Success Mentoring initiative connects students with caring adults in structured mentoring relationships to ensure they feel connected to and are active participants in the school community.
Rigorous, community-connected classroom instruction
We partner with teachers and school leaders to ensure sure that teaching and learning infuse high levels of content and skills with real-world learning opportunities. Through the Network for School Excellence, we are providing opportunities for students to engage in meaningful inquiry-based learning and problem-solving.
Collaborative leadership, shared power and voice
Our research and advocacy initiatives work together to ensure families, students, teachers, principals, and community partners co-create a culture of professional learning, collective trust, and shared responsibility as they make decisions together. Through formal structures, such as Research-Program Partnerships (RPP) and regularly administered surveys, and through more informal engagement.
Current Initiatives
The Community Education Initiative engages parents/adult caregivers and their children in learning activities, together. Recognizing that parents are a child’s first and most important teachers, the Flint Center’s family literacy programing include:
- Adult/workforce education to improve parents’ literacy and employability
- Children’s education activities that prepare young children for academic success
- Parent education programs to enhance parenting skills and affirm parents’ role as experts and equal partners in their children’s education
- Parent-child together activities that strengthen families’ connections to one another and the broader community
Through one-on-one interactions between target students and trained mentors, the Success Mentoring initiative aims to prevent chronic absenteeism by providing personalized guidance, encouragement, and support. Mentors help students set goals, navigate challenges, and stay on track academically and personally. Sign up to become a Success Mentor here.
The Flint Center’s college, career, and community readiness initiatives prepare students for success in school and beyond by providing college awareness activities and campus visits, assistance with college applications and financial aid processes, career exploration and experiential learning opportunities, life skills development and financial literacy training, and meaningful connections to the community.
School-based Student Advisory Councils bring together a diverse group of student representatives to provide input and guidance on initiative-level policies, programs, and issues affecting the student body. By including students in the decision-making process, Student Advisory Councils empower youth voices and help create a more responsive and effective community school that truly serves its students' needs.
To ensure smooth transitions at key educational junctures, the Community Education Initiative provides transition support to students transitioning from:
- Preschool to kindergarten;
- Elementary school to middle school;
- Middle school to high school; and
- High school to college/career preparation.
Our Partner Sites
GET DIRECTIONS
Use my location to find the closest Service Provider near me
Description
OUR IMPACT
Flint Kids Have Increased Connections With Caring Adults
Flint Families Have Increased Access To 2Gen & Family Literacy Initiatives
Success Mentoring Participation
