Causeway Challenge Funds 10 Community-Led Education Initiatives

  • Thursday, May 5, 2016
Causeway announced the 10 winners of its most recent Causeway Challenge, a social entrepreneurship program that provides funding and support to projects that offer bold solutions to community problems.
In the most recent Challenge, nearly 60 local applicants submitted project ideas that answered the question: “How can parents help transform public education in Chattanooga?”

“We believe any person in any part of our community with an idea for social change should have access to the resources, tools and guidance they need to act on that opportunity,” said Abby Garrison, Causeway’s executive director. “The Causeway Challenge is a way for us to reach neighborhood leaders who have great insight for solutions to problems in their own community.”


A panel of six community judges, with backgrounds in various roles in education as parents, reporters, program directors, research specialists, and social entrepreneurs, reviewed every application and made funding recommendations.


Each of the ten winners will receive $3,000 in Causeway Challenge funds to implement their project and a number of supports to help them along the way. Causeway’s staff will provide advice, connections and coaching.  Project leaders will be matched with a mentor from Causeway’s Advisor Network. Causeway will also work with projects to get the word out, and make connections for future growth. Projects will be implemented through the summer and fall of 2016 and will take place all across Chattanooga.

The ten winners of the fourth Causeway Challenge are:


Amistad

Project leader: Gabriel Trujillo

Neighborhood/School: Orchard Knob Middle School

Amistad, which translates to “friendship” in Spanish, is a counseling program that will work to build mutual support among latino male students at Orchard Knob Middle School who are facing acculturation issues. Through weekly counseling groups with students and monthly social gatherings with the students' parents, Amistad will promote trust and collaboration between school and home, while also providing support and resources for the success of these students while they are overcoming the barriers that come with adjusting to a new culture.


Books Over Dinner

Project Leader: Rebekah Griggs

Neighborhood/School: East Lake Elementary

Through hosting potluck dinner parties at the school, this group hopes to start a movement of parents reading aloud to their children every day for 20 minutes. Books Over Dinner will also create a welcoming environment at the school for many of East Lake’s spanish-speaking families (45% of their students) to boost the confidence of parents learning english and to teach the importance of reading aloud in their native language. Families will walk away with bilingual books and tools to help them create reading habits at home that will boost their students’ literacy levels and overall school performance.


Chattanooga School Guide

Project Leader: Katie Smith

Neighborhood/School: County Wide

Modeled after the Memphis School Guide, The Chattanooga School Guide will be a one-stop online resource to help families understand all of their options when deciding where to send their child to school. By pulling together important academic data, personal insights from teachers and students, and enrollment information, the Chattanooga School Guide hopes to paint a holistic picture of what makes a good school, and help local parents decide on the best fit for their kids.


It’s Friday Night, It’s Fun Night!

Project Leader: Joyce Hardaway

Neighborhood/School: Hardy Elementary + Glass Street

This group is re-imagining Friday nights as an opportunity to strengthen family bonds, engage parents and children together, and improve the community. Students and parents from Hardy Elementary and the surrounding neighborhood will come together for nights full of fun activities including student performances, board games, gardening, and exercises designed to promote parents and children learning together. Each week a free, healthy dinner sourced from the community garden will be served while parents receive educational strategies to help their children, reminding them that educational opportunities can easily be found outside the classroom.


Kindergarten Readiness

Project Leaders: Becky Cox and Stacey Barton

Neighborhood/School: Red Bank School District

Led by two kindergarten teachers who understand that the earliest years of childhood education are critical for later success, this program focuses on successfully preparing children ages 3-5 for kindergarten at Red Bank Elementary. Kindergarten Readiness will reach out to parents in the Red Bank school zone through a text messaging subscription that offers practical tips to help parents prepare their children for school through everyday activities. They will also hold inviting and accessible monthly meetings to strengthen relationships between parents and the school.

 

Parent Academy

Project Leaders: Latanya Mason, Debbie Kelley and Jennifer Gherke

Neighborhood/School: Barger Elementary

Research shows that when parents help children with their homework, they not only improve that child’s overall academic performance, but also the student's attitudes related to achievement. However, many times parents aren’t equipped with the tools they need to help their child with their homework. Through introducing parents to educational games, apps, and accountability practices, this program will provide support and training for parents and guardians to assist their children with homework at Barger Academy.  


Parent Involvement 1:1

Project Leaders: Katie Neil, Kathy Cooley, and Erin Hayden

Neighborhood/School: Harrison Elementary

Through a 1:1 device program, all 3rd graders at Harrison Elementary receive an iPad to use at school and home to increase learning opportunities. This team of teachers will offer training to parents so that they feel comfortable and competent with the devices that will be sent home with their child during the school year. The training will not only equip parents to help their children learn more at home, it will also offer direct access to the internet and online school resources to families that may not have had that point of connection in the past.

 

RightsNow

Project Leaders: Luronda Jennings and Jean-Marie Lawrence

Neighborhood/School: County Wide

Every parent wants their child to be able to learn in an environment that embraces their learning style, and leads them to a more confident, efficient and productive life. For parents of children with a disability, that kind of environment can be hard to find. Through Journey Educational Services, RightsNow is a series of interactive workshops that will help parents understand and navigate some of the complex systems and laws surrounding disability regulations in schools so that they can become more confident advocates for their children with disabilities.


Scholars of Tomorrow

Project Leaders: Melissa Jo Brassel and 22:6 Teen Moms Club

Neighborhood/School: County-Wide

Scholars of Tomorrow is a parent “boot camp” aiming to equip teen moms with practical strategies for jumpstarting their children’s education at home. This training program will equip a group of young moms to become more engaged in their child’s learning development, while also helping them connect as a partner with their child’s school. Through a series of interactive sessions, this group will cover topics such as early childhood development and education, literacy, school and teacher expectations, parent resources, and skills for effective parent-teacher communication.


Summer of the Lorax

Project Leader: Nicholas Goebeler

Neighborhood/School: Eastside Elementary + Ferger Place

The Ferger Place Neighborhood Association will connect with students and families at their neighborhood school, Eastside Elementary, through a reading program and community event based on Dr. Seuss’s book, The Lorax. Kindergarten families at East Side Elementary School will be given a personal copy of the book to read over the summer. In the fall, these families will celebrate their reading achievement through a neighborhood-wide party that brings the book to life through an outdoor showing of the movie, and tree-planting activities to reinforce the book’s environmental themes.

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