On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, the Grinnell Education Partnership (GEP) invited partnering organizations to an orientation at the Ahrens Foundation, in-person for the first time since the pandemic, to discuss projects, goals, and insights. The goals of the meeting were to:
Update from GNCSD on student performance data
Share an update about high-impact GEP projects
Discuss broadening GEP focus on the family
Identify GEP priorities for 2023-24
Attendees for the 2023 annual meeting included twelve partnering community organizations and foundations. The GEP support team began by presenting on recent projects, sharing the innovative efforts of working with community partners to maximize capacity building and community impact for students and families in Grinnell. Also cited were efforts in the development of summer learning programs, as the network worked to remove barriers and strengthen programming and staffing.
Shifting to next steps, the GEP support team shared that, while there will still be active developments in emerging needs and summer learning, the goal for upcoming projects is to broaden the focus to youth and adults, and more specifically on long term systemic support for entire families in the community. The GEP network intends to support families by utilizing the Center for Working Families model as a foundation, which includes a combination of workforce readiness and financial empowerment programs, such as digital literacy skill building, adult literacy, Iowa Workforce Development, information about children’s saving accounts, and other educational opportunities for adults to gain self-sufficiency. The GEP network will either organize these programs or serve as community partners to assist with convening, connecting, and capacity building. The annual meeting concluded with a group discussion about ideas for expanding impact.
Keep an eye out for updates regarding the network of GEP and partners’ upcoming projects in the community!
You can view the full GEP annual meeting summary report in the downloadable PDF below.