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Fitz Center Partners on $1M Grant

The University of Dayton Fitz Center for Leadership in Community will partner with Learn to Earn Dayton on a $1 million grant initiative to implement a student-centered blueprint for learning in schools throughout Montgomery County, Ohio.

Learn to Earn Dayton, a countywide initiative dedicated to preparing students for the workforce through educational attainment, announced on Wednesday, March 20, that it was one of four organizations nationwide to win a grant from Together for Students, an effort supported by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. The award will help fund a more integrated, intentional system for meeting the needs of every child to transform the way communities support student-centered learning.

“The Together for Students grant will provide more opportunities for faculty, staff and students at UD to work in collaborative partnership with the six neighborhood schools with a focus on children and families,” said Hunter Phillips Goodman, executive director of the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community. “We’re excited to deepen our work with the Neighborhood School Centers on this effort.”

The Neighborhood School Centers are a partnership with Dayton Public Schools, Wesley Community Center, Omega Community Development Center, YMCA of Greater Dayton, East End Community Services, Dayton Children's Hospital and Wright State University. The grant will enable respective school districts to better leverage in-school and out-of-school academic support, strengthen the school and community connections, and foster stronger parent, student and teacher partnerships and relationships.

Learn to Earn Dayton is one of four community initiatives nationwide selected to receive a combined $3.75 million in funding through Together for Students, a joint partnership among the Coalition for Community Schools, Communities In Schools and StriveTogether. The goal of all three organizations is to showcase how decision-making among families, educators and partners can create better outcomes for nearly 100,000 youth. The three organizations launched Together for Students with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to accelerate the progress of communities in transforming how they meet the needs of individual learners, particularly the most vulnerable.

During the past few years, Together for Students has championed student-centered learning — an approach that combines quality educational opportunities with health and wellness services, mentoring, college readiness activities and work-based learning experiences.

“Finding ways to better connect with parents, families and young people is an essential part of fostering the enhanced educational attainment that is so essential for our community and for our state,” said Tom Lasley, CEO of Learn to Earn Dayton and a current professor of educational leadership in the School of Education and Health Sciences. “By working with the Dayton Public Schools, the Huber Heights Public Schools and the Fitz Center at the University of Dayton, this grant will create new engagement opportunities for lots of different stakeholders in Dayton and Montgomery County.”
Lasley served as dean of the School of Education and Health Sciences from 1998-2010.

“Through this grant the Dayton Public Schools intends to strengthen and better align the work that is occurring in its neighborhood schools,” said Dayton Public Schools superintendent Elizabeth Lolli. “This will foster enhanced student and family engagement and create environments where the higher expectations of the teachers and families can be realized.”

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