U.S. Department of Education to Host Strengthening Whole Child Communities: Raising the Bar from Cradle to Career in Detroit, Michigan

From the U.S. Department of Education:

On Thursday, August 1 and Friday, August 2, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) will host the Strengthening Whole Child Communities: Raising the Bar from Cradle to Career Summit in Detroit, Michigan. The summit will convene policymakers, practitioners, advocates, philanthropy leaders, youth and community-based organizations to reaffirm the importance of public education as a driver of opportunity and socioeconomic mobility for children and youth from low-income backgrounds and their families. Speakers and panelists will uplift examples of how schools and communities are effectively collaborating to strengthen prenatal-to-career continuums for students and families and support place-based efforts. The Strengthening Whole Child Communities Summit is hosted in partnership with the Ballmer Group, Kresge Foundation, Raikes Foundation and the Stuart Foundation...

As part of the Department’s commitment to boldly improve learning conditions and address opportunity gaps, the summit will highlight funding opportunities through the Department’s Promise Neighborhoods grants program. The Promise Neighborhoods Program works to support academic, developmental, and other outcomes for children and youth living in communities of concentrated poverty and to provide services that will support students from early childhood through the course of their K-12 education. The FY2024 grant competition focuses on early implementation to help build the capacity of communities to create lasting place-based partnerships and cradle-to-career supports, as well as encourages applicants to engage young people in the planning and implementation of their grants. This year there are 3 competitive priorities and 1 invitational priority for the competition. The 3 competitive preference priorities are: 1) new applicants, 2) strengthening cross agency coordination for system change to address community violence prevention, and 3) promoting equity in student access to educational resources and opportunities. The invitational priority is designed to encourage applicants to increase regular student attendance and engagement and reduce chronic absenteeism through evidence-based strategies.

The summit will also feature federal Full-Service Community School (FSCS) grantees who have built supportive and enriching learning environments for all students—including those furthest from opportunity. Specifically, FSCS grantees will share how they have built sustainable partnerships to provide essential services to support learning and foster student engagement, including nutrition services, dental, vision, and mental health support. FSCS Project Directors will share their insights on how other states, districts, and schools can connect with local educational agencies, institutes of higher education, community-based organizations, and nonprofit organizations to create impactful systems of learning and support.

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