December 11, 2014

Issue No.38

Deep Dive Spotlight: White Center Partnership

The Deep Dive 2 (DD2) project, the White Center Partnership, aims to accelerate achievement of students in the White Center neighborhood, focused on White Center Heights and Mount View Elementary Schools in Highline.

One of four main strategies of the White Center Partnership project is increasing the capacity of the Family Connectors Program through the White Center Community Development Association. This approach meets the whole needs of children and includes family-based bilingual/bicultural advocacy, social networking, referrals, parent trainings, and leadership opportunities in order to increase student academic outcomes and family stability. This program brings together, expands and deepens already established programs: the Family Liaison program at Highline Public Schools; the Family Support Program at Southwest Youth and Family Services; Family Connections at White Center Community Development Association; and Community Builders at King County Housing Authority.

The second strategy is facilitating alignment and communication among early learning programs, families, and schools to support kindergarten readiness. Informal and formal early learning providers are recruited and engaged to participate in professional learning activities and integrated into other Race to the Top PreK - 3rd grade alignment opportunities.

School-day interventions are also being offered after school. A school extended day teacher is coordinating alignment of curricula, adaptive technology, training, and resources to integrate school day instruction with after school programs. This is bringing together the work of school staff, families, and community-based organizations such as Southwest Youth and Family Services and Boys and Girls Club to provide a seamless continuum of activities that extends the school day for students at White Center Heights and Mount View Elementary Schools and creates a strong, cohesive learning community.

Finally, King County Housing Authority is increasing housing stability and institute rapid rehousing as a pilot in the Highline Public Schools. The model being tested and refined in this pilot will be used to scale across the Road Map region. KCHA is counseling households on the importance of not disrupting children's education by moving during the school year, exploring with them the possibility of moving to a location where the child can remain in their current classroom, or of moving during the summer. Also, KCHA is reprogramming Section 8 subsidies to provide rapid rehousing interventions to move families quickly into stable housing without disrupting their children's education, demonstrating rapid rehousing can reduce transportation costs to school districts, and help school districts develop a focus on housing rather than transportation solutions for homeless children.

For more information, please visit our Deep Dive 2 page. Congratulations to Highline for this impressive work!

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