City Forward Collective is marshalling resources to empower schools with instructional resources to serve students while they’re learning at home

With school buildings shuttered against COVID-19, Milwaukee educators are racing to transform how they serve students. You can help speed this response.

Since this ongoing crisis began, City Forward Collective has spoken to hundreds of school leaders and classroom teachers to identify what they need in order to provide every student with high-quality distance learning.

To help meet these needs, we have established the COVID-19 School Support Fund. Under the leadership of Mary and Ted Kellner, our board of directors has raised $750,000 for this essential work.

DONOR IMPACT

All donations to this fund will go directly to schools or organizations that help schools respond to COVID-19. Your gift will be strategically invested to:

• Scalable approaches to providing equitable remote instruction

• Summer and extended year learning opportunities to address achievement gaps caused by COVID-19 disruptions

• Projects that can turn the challenges posed by COVID-19 into innovations that will improve teaching and learning in the long-term

City Forward Collective will continue working with school leaders to identify additional areas of need.

Milwaukee children don’t have time to wait

With 20% of the school year still remaining, all schools must resume meaningful learning as soon as possible. Without urgent intervention, those already the furthest behind will lose even more ground.

Experts are warning that periodic school closures will likely be necessary beyond the current school year until a vaccine is widely available. Our schools must have robust distance learning programs and digital infrastructure that can be ‘switched on’ at a moment’s notice.

PART OF A HOLISTIC RESPONSE

In addition to the creation of this fund, City Forward Collective is providing a range of supports to school leaders, educators, and families as they face the COVID-19 crisis.

• Established the COVID-19 School Support Fund, a $750,000 pool of resources to support schools as they serve students during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

• Awarded 14 planning grants to schools and school networks to support their reopening planning for the 2020-21 school year

• Designed a School Reopening Planning Tool, which incorporated the best thinking of public health and education experts from around the country

• Hosted a series of nine workshops for school teams creating reopening plans, providing support to more than 75 schools

• Worked closely with the City of Milwaukee Health Department to support the development of criteria and a checklist to assess schools’ readiness to reopen and ability to serve students virtually

• Collected resources to share with families, school leaders, and classroom teachers, and launched a comprehensive, web-based resource

• Spotlighted schools with the strongest responses to COVID-19 to serve as proof of what is possible

• Established regular Virtual Collaboratives with hundreds of school leaders and educators to share best practices and resources, and to provide a collegial space for them to navigate change management 

• Tracked state and federal COVID-19 recovery/stimulus legislation to understand the impact on schools and to inform our policy/advocacy work to ensure these new one-time fiscal resources are allocated equitably across all school sectors

OTHER WAYS TO GIVE

If you prefer to make a donation by check, please send it payable to “City Forward Collective, Inc.” at: City Forward Collective; 111 W. Pleasant St., Suite 101; Milwaukee, WI 53212

If you’d like to discuss making a gift of appreciated assets, a legacy gift, or a bequest, please contact us at (414) 988-5359 or at info@cityforwardcollective.org.