news-record.com

By CATHY LEVINSON

Collective impact — the idea that large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination — is alive and well in Guilford County.

Through the new educational initiative AchieveGuilford, this concept is brought to life through numerous community partners and support from the nonprofit, public and private sectors in Greensboro and High Point. This is evident in the recent donation of more than 7,000 books to the children of Guilford County Schools and their subsequent storage, stamping and delivery.

The News & Record ran pictures on its front page Dec. 14 of the donated books being delivered by Dudley High School students, but here’s the rest of the story to fully understand the scope of collective impact.

Before Thanksgiving, an anonymous donor offered more than 7,000 elementary-school-age-appropriate books to the Guilford Education Alliance with the stipulation that the books be removed from their Greensboro location immediately. The Guilford Education Alliance’s offices could not hold all the books, so Paul Saperstein, owner and CEO of Concept Plastics in High Point, enthusiastically offered temporarily unused, heated, well-lit, convenient office space.

Next, the Rotary Club of Greensboro stepped up to pack and move the books from the Greensboro site to High Point. Members rented a U-Haul truck and spent the entire Saturday before Thanksgiving packing and hauling 360 boxes. To ensure students’ parents and caregivers would know the book was a gift, each book needed to be stamped or “stickered” on the inside of the front cover: “This book is a gift from Guilford Education Alliance.”

Enter nine Girl Scout troops that picked up approximately 25 boxes of books from storage in High Point, stamped and stickered them and then boxed them back up for delivery. 

Through our relationship with Brenda Elliott, executive director of Student Services and project manager for Character Development Initiative at Guilford County Schools, we were connected to Vice Principal Cheryl Beeson at Dudley High School. She committed Dudley students to stamping and delivering books to elementary school students at selected schools. However, the books needed to be transported from storage in High Point to Dudley in Greensboro.

Administrators at Guilford County Schools agreed to request a truck for the next day to pick up 80 boxes of books and move them to Dudley, while Beeson arranged to have an activity bus available on which the student volunteers could load the 80 boxes and individually deliver books to four Greensboro schools.

In addition, Leadership Greensboro also stamped and stickered 500 books that were given to BackPack Beginnings, along with food, for students to take home over the holidays. 

On Dec. 14, 10 Dudley  students loaded and delivered 80 boxes of books to four Guilford County elementary schools. What’s more, the Dudley students then read to the elementary students to model the importance of reading and also listened to elementary school students read.

According to studies conducted by participants of the STRIVE Network, academic success is predicated by a child being able to read at grade level by the end of grade three. There are several other factors, including:

-- Ensuring a child is ready to learn when entering school.

-- Career exploration and development of essential 21st-century skills no later than middle school.

-- Successful completion of Algebra I by eighth grade.

-- High school graduation and enrollment in postsecondary training or education.

Allen Jay, Bessemer, Fairview, Falkener, Foust, Hampton, Hunter, Peck, Rankin, Sedgefield, Union Hill and Washington elementary schools all received books. In addition, Brightwood and Irving Park received enough books for all Pre-K through third-grade classes. Thus, our community worked collectively to make certain that more than 7,000 students had at least one book in their homes over the holidays.

AchieveGuilford aligns community resources with a mission of Every Child Ready: Cradle to Career to prepare students for the challenges of postsecondary education and future careers.

Cathy Levinson is project manager for AchieveGuilford and can be reached at 841-4332 or clevinson@guilfordeducationalliance.org.