Community Connections

GHCC promotes collaboration and mutally beneficial relationships between the neighborhood and school communities.  We connect  schools and neighborhood associations to program providers, funding sources, and volunteers.  We also provide technical assistance and leadership development opportunities for community members, parents and staff in the schools. 

Connecting Schools and Neighborhoods

Each GHCC school has the following resources to support students:

• An AmeriCorps*VISTA member to coordinate the partnerships, volunteers, and programs that support the school's work. Our VISTAs become integral members of the school community, organizing resources and programs for children and enabling educators to focus on academics.
• 15-20 Experience Corps Members, trained senior citizens who volunteer a minimum of 15 hours per week and are placed in Pre-K to 3rd grade classrooms to mentor and tutor children and assist teachers. Research has proven that reading scores improve and office referrals for behavior issues decrease in classes with Experience Corps volunteers. Teachers have more time for individual attention and instruction and students receive the one-on-one attention they need to thrive.
• A College or University Partner that provides at least one of the following: student teachers, professional development, other technical assistance opportunities, or volunteers for after-school activities. These partners often provide other donations or in-kind help for specific schools.
• Quality After-School Programs at all schools. Neighborhood Programs staff work with principals to ensure connections to after-school program providers and funding for academic, enrichment and homework help. In addition, we have developed dozens of other partnerships to provide after-school clubs and activities like music, dance, basketball, chess, scouting, and National Academic League.
• Support for Parent Involvement, including help recruiting parents for parent organizations and volunteering in the schools as well as assistance in planning meetings and events. Parents are important members of our Public Education Committee and help guide our program.
• Strategic Planning Support for Principals, using a set of indicators of quality schools that helps principals identify areas that need focused attention and planning.
• A Faith-Based Partner that responds to identified needs of the individual school. Our faith-based partners tutor and mentor children, volunteer in the library, and run after-school clubs. In addition, faith partners step in to provide help for individual families in need and engage in advocacy to address larger schoolwide and systemwide inequities.
• Vision Matters Program, a partnership with the Lions Association for Sight and Hearing, the Lions Club of Central Maryland, and the LensCrafters Give the Gift of Sight Foundation provides vision screening and follow-up eye care to children in our partnership schools. In 2007-2008, we met the eye care needs of nearly 800 students, some of whom showed signs of serious eye conditions, such as cross eye and lazy eye. Of that number, over 200 children have needed and received follow up care.
• Advocacy for Better Public Education and School Facilities. For example, GHCC’s technical assistance and staff attention have been integral to advocacy efforts for adequate facilities and programs at Waverly Elementary/Middle, as well as advocating for equity in staffing formulas for the city’s K-8 schools. Staff provide assistance to individual schools on issues that are not receiving attention from the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS). Principals often rely on us to advocate for long-promised but never-received school repairs.
• Connections to other GHCC Resources, such as our Community Economic Development program, which helps link the community to the schools, and GHCC’s Adult Literacy & ESOL Progam, which provides resources to meet the needs of adult learners.

Additionally, since 2006, GHCC has been awarded Baltimore City Community Schools Initiative grants to place Community School Coordinators and create Community Schools at:

• Barclay Elementary/Middle
• Guilford Elementary/Middle

These coordinators work alongside AmeriCorps*VISTA members to transform these schools into full-service neighborhood schools that meet the identified needs of the children, their families, and the neighborhood.