Community-District Teams reach out to individuals and organizations to serve as advocates who either have a shared interest in PreK-3 educational environments or whose work could be mutually beneficial to both parties. Team members take time to develop and maintain meaningful, long-lasting relationships with individuals from other organizations and attend their meetings and events to communicate and share the work of Ready Schools. A critical role of the Community-District Team is to gather a variety of sustainable funding sources.
Download Pathway Nine: Grassroots Community Building from the Ready Schools Toolkit, Part 2.
Download Appendix J, Resources for Grassroots Community Building.
Selected Grassroots Community Building Resources:
WEBSITES
The Center for Participatory Change (CPC): http://www.cpcwnc.org/
Through grassroots organizing, capacity building, networking, and grant making, CPC helps rural people make improvements to their communities via projects that they plan, implement, and evaluate themselves. This site provides a toolkit for fundraising, grant writing, leadership skills, and running a non-profit. The CPC offers small grants to grassroots organizations in Western North Carolina.
The Citizen’s Handbook: practical assistance for those who want to make a difference: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/0_1_Intro.html
This website provides “what works” tips for community development.
Organize to Win: A Grassroots Organizing Handbook: http://www.britell.com/text/OrganizeToWin.pdf
Provides essential elements and motivational strategies for grassroots campaigns.
Ready Schools + Ready Communities = Ready2: http://hugh.ncsmartstart.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Ready2.-The-Power-to-Connect-Ready-Schools-Ready-Communities-Slides-optimized.pdf
This link is provided by the Down East Partnership for Children. It is a PowerPoint presentation that describes the impact of their Ready2 initiative.
Working with the Community: Activist Milestone #11, Build a Coalition of Community Allies: http://www.results.org/skills_center/advocacy_how_tos/working_with_the_community/milestone_34/
From the Advocacy How-Tos section of the Skills Center on the RESULTS website. The Skills Center also includes information on and resources for Group Building and Leadership and Fundraising.
DOCUMENTS
Many industries, companies, and employees are actively engaged in educational institutions. This toolkit provides a guide for employers to structure their involvement. It shares lessons learned by other Adopt-A-School porgrams.