Dear Colleagues and Friends:
When the school doors open, a world of possibilities opens for eager students full of curiosity and potential. Research shows that for students, an accumulation of opportunities can lead to positive outcomes throughout their life.
Opportunities matter.
Creating new opportunities for students to thrive is what City Connects seeks to do. By listening to students, learning what is interesting and exciting to them, consulting their teachers and families, and providing personalized connections to school and community partners, our Coordinators can help each student feel known and seen. This work is critical in a time when human connection can be harder to find, especially when out-of-school factors can make it more difficult to show up to school ready to learn.
Right now, our thoughts in particular are with the communities affected by flooding in the Midwest and fires in the Northwest. We are all united in the hope that your families and schools have access to all needed supports and that those displaced can return home soon.
For more than 25 years, City Connects has acted as a source of stability in times of uncertainty. Whether challenges stem from unexpected weather events, sudden food or housing insecurity, health or community disruptions, or the loss of loved ones, City Connects Coordinators respond with support tailored to a student’s unique circumstances. In Salem, it’s a partnership with local food banks. In Minnesota, it’s a relationship with a community partner specializing in grief support for children. In Dublin, Ireland, it’s providing afterschool activities as a shelter against crime and violence in the neighborhood.
Every school in our network is unique, and we strive to make every zip code a place of opportunity. What we have found time and again is that schools and communities have many resources to build scaffolds of support. When City Connects helps coordinate people, programs, and possibilities for students, it supports schools as they strengthen relationships, improve access to resources, and transform student learning and life outcomes.
We look forward to seeing this happen again in the fall, as our network grows to include new schools in Maine, Washington State, and Ireland. We can’t wait to see how these new schools combine our evidence-based practice with local knowledge about the children and families who are at the heart of City Connects.
City Connects is growing because it makes a difference. City Connects was recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse as having the strongest possible evidence of effectiveness, based on a study supported by the federal Institute of Education Sciences.
Thank you for your continued support of City Connects, and your commitment to the schools, communities, students, and families we serve. Now, more than ever, it is important to do “what works” so that every child and youth can take full advantage of new opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive.
With gratitude,
Mary & Claire
