Media Contact: Carlos A. Nelson
Phone: (773) 483-3696
Email: cnelson@gagdc.org
                                                                                            
 
A $1.9M grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will support expansion of an education-enhancement program called Auburn Gresham GOLD focused on schools in Auburn Gresham –Englewood, CPS Network 11, lead by the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation (GAGDC).  With these resources from W.K. Kellogg Foundation, GAGDC and its partnership with the Strategic Learning Initiatives (SLI), will accelerate student and adult learning and community development.  When integrated with current initiatives to improve the quality of early literacy training, health and employment services and more effective parent engagement, this initiative will help transform the future of residents on Chicago’s south side.
 
The $1.9 million investment over three years will support programming at two schools in 2014, and additional schools in 2015 and 2016. The grant will leverage nearly a decade’s work by the GAGDC to build community networks and resources, including a school based health center at Perspectives Middle Academy and a network of Illinois State University student teachers who work in local schools. The Auburn Gresham GOLD program will also include local early childcare centers, starting with New Pisgah Day Care Center.
 
Major components of Auburn Gresham GOLD (AG GOLD) will include:

• Early literacy training: Pre-kindergarten to 3rd grade teachers at Barton and Westcott will participate in the Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) professional development program.  CLI helped Barton achieve an 18 percentage point gain among third-grade students who met or exceeded the ISAT benchmark from 2010 to 2012.  
• Health services: Primary students at the AG GOLD schools will be connected to health education and services to increase immunization compliance, student health and attendance rates. The Auburn Gresham Health and Wellness Center at Perspectives Middle Academy will serve students and families.  This Federally Qualified Health Center helped another local school, Oglesby, achieve nearly 100 percent immunization compliance.
• Employment: GAGDC will link parents of AG GOLD school students to workforce development services through a key partnership with CVS Caremark to prepare participants for jobs at the drugstore chain and their distribution centers.  We will also use employment services of the Auburn Gresham Center for Working Families operated by the St. Sabina Employment Resource Center.
• Parent engagement: AG GOLD schools will emphasize development of respectful and trusting relationships with parents so that they become full partners in academic and school improvements.  GAGDC’s work in 2013 with parents from Barton School was instrumental in removing that school from a “turnaround” list.

AG GOLD is premised on a “two-generation” strategy that simultaneously engages both students and parents. This model is compatible with the long-term work of GAGDC, which since 2003 has been a lead agency in LISC Chicago’s Neighborhood Network. That program has brought direct investment of $8.2 million to the community, including $3.4 million from The Atlantic Philanthropies for education and health programs. 
 
To complement AG GOLD, the GAGDC invited Strategic Learning Initiatives (SLI), a nonprofit, to help accelerate the rate of learning of their students and adults.  SLI is supported by a $900,000, three year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
 
The W.K. Kellogg funding will be used for teacher professional development in literacy; program coordinators at each school; a health coordinator who will work with the schools and the University of Illinois Hospital-staffed Auburn Gresham Health and Wellness Center at Perspectives; out-of-school-time enrichment programming, including economic security trainings for parents; and data tracking and analysis.  Additionally, SLI’s unique, research-based, systemic model for rapid, low-cost school transformation will be deployed and will support each school’s leadership team.
 
Full implementation at Randolph and Westcott Schools started in September 2014. Expansion to additional schools will follow.  
 
Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation (GAGDC) is a community development organization with a mission to foster and promote revitalization of the community by designing and implementing programs that improve the community’s economic viability, increase availability of quality housing and enhance delivery of education and social services. GAGDC works to position young people to be successful in school and create real opportunities for growth and development across multiple generations. For more information see: www.gagdc.org.
 
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life. For more information see: www.wkkf.org.
 
Strategic Learning Initiatives, established in 2000, vision is to support demonstration sites of school leaders and stakeholders in their desire to rapidly transform, scale and sustain their low cost results. For more information see: www.strategiclearning.org.

• Local Businesses
• Education
• Business, Housing, Economic Development

• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• See us on Flickr