Marin Promise Partners believe that educational equity can best be achieved, when all who touch the lives of children work together in concert with one another. So, when a number of Partners expressed interest in the new statewide Community Schools initiative (now known as the California Community Schools Partnership Program – CCSPP), the Backbone team responded. Staff provided the research needed to identify schools in our county that qualified to participate in this program and then worked with the interested Partners to help them apply for the Community Schools grants. Four qualifying districts applied and were granted the funds: SRCS, SUSD, MCOE’s community school were granted $200,000 each for a planning year and SMCSD was granted a $712,500 5-year implementation grant – totaling $1,312,500 in new educational dollars focused on increasing educational equity in Marin. The Backbone Team celebrates and congratulates these Partners for their work, dedication, and courage to step into a new way of working together with community-based services, families and each other. Click HERE to read the recent IJ article about these grant awards.
Community Schools align perfectly with Marin Promise Partnership’s educational equity mission and many of its core values and principles: whole-child learning, multi-sector and community engagement, evidence-based, integrated approaches to supporting students in and out of school, and collaboration, just to name a few. The Backbone staff will support the local Community Schools teams with a variety of services and will connect them together to learn from each other’s experiences. The foundation for this approach is rich and fertile in this county and will build off of 10 years of investment to grow and strengthen the Partners’ work together.
Please visit any of the links above to learn more about Community Schools or click HERE to read the CCSPP FAQ, HERE to view the March 8th Grant Information Webinar Slides, or HERE to read an EdSource article.
