Vancouver Public Schools is one of 10 organizations from across the country selected to receive grants from the Together for Students initiative. The nearly $150,000 award to Vancouver will enable the district to work with Educational Service District 112 and community partners to plan ways to provide extra support, both academic and non-academic, to families from before childbirth through their children completing the third grade.
The plan will focus on ways to help families with preparing their children for kindergarten, meeting literacy goals and building good school attendance habits. It will be designed around five elementary school neighborhoods: Ogden, King, Washington, Fruit Valley Community Learning Center and Roosevelt.
Several community partners contributed to the development of VPS’ grant proposal, including Educational Service District 112, Free Clinic for Southwest Washington, Children’s Center, Council for the Homeless, Boys and Girls Club of Southwest Washington, Share, Partners in Careers, Vancouver Housing Authority and the Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools.
The initiative was created by the nonprofits Coalition for Community Schools, Communities In Schools and StriveTogether with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Ford Foundation.