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21st CCLC October 19, 2004 Conference Call
- Community Partnerships

Below are notes taken from past conference calls. These are not the most comprehensive, but give a general idea as to what was discussed.

Participants:
Coatesville
Greater Johnstown
Newport
Reading
Tuscarora

PSLA (as moderator)

Generating Ideas for Community Partners

From Coatesville:
Partners with Art Partner studio, which provides an artist in residence. The focus this year is “Around the World”, looking at different countries. It expands the art theme into the academic time of program. Last year’s theme was ‘It takes a Village.” Students determined how they fit into their community and what their role was.

From Reading:
Partners with churches. One has Center for the Arts which works with the students.
Another partner is the Girl Scouts. Students go to Camp Adahi and focus on environmental and outdoor education.

From Greater Johnstown:
Partners with 25 community organizations, including the library, Community Action Council, law enforcement, Camp Trojan (paramilitary), Career Link, radio station, Keystone economic development, the Y, drug and alcohol task force.

How do you manage so many community partners?
-sent out an invitation to establish partnerships
-meet periodically (bimonthly) with all partners to develop schedules
-every day after school there’s a partner in attendance
-an agreement is drawn up to set fees. There is an indirect match of volunteer services. For example, the 21st Century program will pay for the Y lifeguards, but not for use of pool.
-during the summer there’s an 8 week, 600 student program in which partners play a major role.

From Newport:
Program is set in a rural area.
RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program) senior citizen partners-do crafts, quilting, help with field trips, etc. Two seniors on staff do homework help with students every day. Allows students to have some quiet study time as well as develop a relationship.
Partners with Council of the Arts, which provides an artist every month. Another partnership is with a domestic violence program

From Tuscarora:
Serves K-9, 50 students, rural area. Mostly migrant and ESL students.
Susquehanna University has requirement for students to volunteer, so they read to students in her program.
The Penn State Art Department requires art students to work with students for 40 hours. 20 hours with non-diverse students, 20 hours with diverse.
Partners with 4H and cooperative extension
HYPERLINK "http://www.cyfernet.org" www.cyfernet.org has clover buds curriculum online. Great resource!

Next steps:

Bring back information and ideas from conference call to your staff and program!

There was a request to compile a list of community partners within 21st CCLC.

Ideas for Future Calls:
Evaluation and assessment