U.S. Department of Education to Host Strengthening Whole Child Communities: Raising the Bar from Cradle to Career in Detroit, Michigan

U.S. Department of Education to Host Strengthening Whole Child Communities: Raising the Bar from Cradle to Career in Detroit, Michigan

July 30, 2024

Contact: Press Office, (202) 401-1576, [email protected]

On Thursday, August 1 and Friday, August 2, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) will host the Strengthening Whole Child Communities: Raising the Bar from Cradle to Career Summit in Detroit, Michigan. The summit will convene policymakers, practitioners, advocates, philanthropy leaders, youth and community-based organizations to reaffirm the importance of public education as a driver of opportunity and socioeconomic mobility for children and youth from low-income backgrounds and their families. Speakers and panelists will uplift examples of how schools and communities are effectively collaborating to strengthen prenatal-to-career continuums for students and families and support place-based efforts. The Strengthening Whole Child Communities Summit is hosted in partnership with the Ballmer Group, Kresge Foundation, Raikes Foundation and the Stuart Foundation.

At the Summit, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten will provide keynote remarks. The opening sessions of each day are open press; media availability with speakers will follow the conclusion of the opening session.

Members of the media interested in attending are requested to RSVP to [email protected].

Day 1 Opening Session

WHO:
White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden
U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary of the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development Roberto Rodriguez

WHEN:
Thursday, August 1, 2024
9:15 - 10 a.m. ET

WHERE:
Marygrove Conservancy
8425 West McNichols Road
Detroit, Michigan

Day 2 Opening Session

WHO:
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten

WHEN:
Friday, August 2, 2024
9:30 - 10:15 a.m. ET

WHERE:
Marygrove Conservancy
8425 West McNichols Road
Detroit, Michigan

As part of the Department's commitment to boldly improve learning conditions and address opportunity gaps, the summit will highlight funding opportunities through the Department's Promise Neighborhoods grants program. The Promise Neighborhoods Program works to support academic, developmental, and other outcomes for children and youth living in communities of concentrated poverty and to provide services that will support students from early childhood through the course of their K-12 education. The FY2024 grant competition focuses on early implementation to help build the capacity of communities to create lasting place-based partnerships and cradle-to-career supports, as well as encourages applicants to engage young people in the planning and implementation of their grants. This year there are 3 competitive priorities and 1 invitational priority for the competition. The 3 competitive preference priorities are: 1) new applicants, 2) strengthening cross agency coordination for system change to address community violence prevention, and 3) promoting equity in student access to educational resources and opportunities. The invitational priority is designed to encourage applicants to increase regular student attendance and engagement and reduce chronic absenteeism through evidence-based strategies.

The summit will also feature federal Full-Service Community School (FSCS) grantees who have built supportive and enriching learning environments for all students-including those furthest from opportunity. Specifically, FSCS grantees will share how they have built sustainable partnerships to provide essential services to support learning and foster student engagement, including nutrition services, dental, vision, and mental health support. FSCS Project Directors will share their insights on how other states, districts, and schools can connect with local educational agencies, institutes of higher education, community-based organizations, and nonprofit organizations to create impactful systems of learning and support.

The Biden-Harris Administration has been a catalyst behind the expansion and impact of the FSCS program as it has grown from 42 grants in 2020 to 114 in 2024. And in just the past two years, the FSCS program's reach has spread to an additional 359 districts, 2,023 schools, and over 1 million students.

This is because the Administration has increased funding for the program from $25 million in 2020 to $150 million for each of the past two fiscal years. These investments have helped states, districts, and schools in 30 states implement their locally driven visions for education.

To support these efforts and underscore the importance of public-private partnerships in supporting place-based strategies, several new commitments to supporting students and families from cradle to career will be announced at the Summit:

• The Kresge Foundation is committing:
• • A $28.5 million guarantee to the Marygrove Conservancy to support the capital build-out of classroom and dormitory space to house undergraduate degree programs, realizing the full complement of cradle-to-career programming on the campus.
  • $3 million over the next 3 years to implement a Cradle-to-Career Neighborhoods strategy to envision how neighborhoods in Detroit can center the needs of the whole child and whole family, from cradle to career, in order to retain and grow its population, catalyze economic development, and advance socioeconomic mobility for its existing residents.
  • Support to Policy Equity Group, to launch a community of practice for attendees of the Summit on Strengthening Whole Child Communities, building a national network of communities interested in strengthening place-based approaches to serving the whole child and whole family and centering education as a driver of economic opportunity.
• The Raikes Foundation is committing:
• • $10 million to improve outcomes for students and youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Over the next 2.5 years, the Raikes Foundation is supporting national, state, and local efforts to improve how students and older youth are served in and out of school to prevent or quickly address homelessness, in part by ensuring they graduate from high school.

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