Education

The Strive Partnership is an effort launched by community leaders in the Cincinnati region in 2006 that relies on innovative strategies to improve student education outcomes. The Partnership has designed a strategic approach to education reform that can be applied to communities throughout the country. The approach relies on a collaborative effort from community stakeholders from all sectors of the economy to encourage learning and development beyond the walls of their schools.

Head Start is a federal program designed to promote school readiness by enhancing the cognitive and emotional development of pre-school aged children. Through a program called “Eat Play Grow,” a series of obesity prevention classes are offered by the Children’s Museum of New York and the National Health Institute to be held in classrooms throughout New York City. Nonprofit groups throughout low-income areas in New York teach classes to children in underserved communities. Classes are held at common neighborhood institutions, such as community centers and libraries.

Project Phoenix is an intergenerational program based in Wellend, Ontario, just outside of Niagara, run jointly by the nonprofits Seniors for Youth Niagara and Youth Resources Niagara. The program aims to close the gap between seniors and youth for the purpose of improving the community by giving senior volunteers a chance to interact and share their knowledge and experience with at-risk youth in the area.

When Dr. Gordon Streib, a sociology professor at the University of Florida, first pitched the idea of sponsoring a retirement community on the UF campus in 1997, it was understandably met with skepticism by the University leadership. It would seem difficult for the late-night lifestyles of college students and the generally more peaceful temperaments of senior citizens to coexist. Nearly 10 years after the retirement community opened its doors in 2004, however, the establishment of the Oak Hammock Retirement Home has proven to be such a resounding success that there is already a waiting list to get in.

When kids from Commerce, a small working-class city outside of Los Angeles, are asked who their heroes are, they will, more often than not, mention local residents Brenda Villa and Patty Cardenas. Villa and Cardenas were both key members of the Women’s Olympic Water Polo Team from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, and they are both products of the Commerce Water Polo Club.